Myanmar’s powerful military detained the country’s leader in an overnight raid, the ruling National League for Democracy said on Monday. Other senior leaders from the party have also been “taken.”
“I want to tell our people not to respond rashly and I want them to act according to the law,” said spokesman Myo Nyunt, revealing that the 75-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other leaders were now in custody.
He added that he also expected to be taken.
“With the situation we see happening now, we have to assume that the military is staging a coup,” he added.
Hours later, state-run media MRTV said it was unable to broadcast as it was facing technical issues.
“Due to current communication difficulties we’d like to respectfully inform you that the regular programmes of MRTV and Myanmar Radio cannot be broadcast,” Myanmar Radio and Television said in a Facebook post.
This comes amid escalating tensions between Myanmar’s civilian government and its army, which had been at the helm of governance for decades.
Fears of an impending coup
A military spokesman was unavailable for comments on Monday.
Last week, however, Myanmar’s military commander-in-chief sparked fears of an impending coup.
The army’s commander-in-chief, General Min Aung Hlaing told military personnel on Wednesday that it may be “necessary” to revoke the constitution if it was not abided by.
Political tensions escalated when a military spokesman refused to rule out the possibility of a coup, and warned the armed forces could “take action” if concerns about election irregularities were not addressed.
However, in a statement on Saturday, the military — officially named the Tatmadaw in Burmese — appeared to backtrack on its rhetoric, saying that the general’s remarks had been misinterpreted.
“The Tatmadaw is protecting the 2008 constitution and will act according to the law,” it said. “Some organizations and media assumed what they want and wrote as Tatmadaw will abolish the constitution.”
This article was originally published on Deutsche Welle. Read the original article here.
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TNL Editor: Nicholas Haggerty (@thenewslensintl)
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