Myanmar’s elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, ousted early this month, is also accused of violating the law on natural disaster emergencies. It is not yet clear what exactly the new charge entails, and it may be about ignoring corona measures.

 

Suu Kyi was accused of violating the law on importing electronic equipment shortly after the February 1 military coup. This later turned out to be the illegal import of walkie-talkies.

According to the military junta, Suu Kyi is also doing fine and has been placed under house arrest in the capital Naypyidaw. Christine Schraner Burgener has called a top man from the military junta, Soe Win, a United Nations special envoy. The UN has warned that the brutal crackdown on the mass protests against the coup will have “severe consequences” for the leaders in Naypÿidaw.

Protests against the coup are still going on, and on Tuesday they were in the capital and in the second city of the country, Mandalay, more than 200 kilometres to the north. The BBC has also reported railroad blockades by protesters.

In Myanmar, then known as Burma, a military coup was staged in 1962 that allowed officers to establish a communist-style totalitarian state that has only slowly become freer since the end of the last century. The ‘Privy Councilor’ with which the military-ruled was only dissolved in 2011.

In free elections, activist and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was elected government leader in 2015 by a vast majority. She won again in the last election in November, but that was fraudulent according to the military who took power this month.