Myanmar’s military have seized power on Monday in a coup against the democratically elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was detained along with other leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party in early morning raids.
The army said it had carried out the detentions in response to “election fraud”, handing power to military chief Min Aung Hlaing and imposing a state of emergency for one year, according to a statement on a military-owned television station.
A military spokesman did not answer phone calls seeking further comment.
Phone lines to the capital Naypyitaw and the main commercial centre of Yangon were not reachable, and state TV went off air hours before parliament had been due to sit for the first time since the NLD’s landslide election win in November, viewed as a referendum on Suu Kyi’s fledgling democratic government.
Soldiers took up positions at city hall in Yangon and mobile internet data and phone services in the NLD stronghold were disrupted, residents said. Internet connectivity also had fallen dramatically, monitoring service NetBlocks said.
Suu Kyi, Myanmar President Win Myint and other NLD leaders had been “taken” in the early hours of the morning, NLD spokesman Myo Nyunt told Reuters by phone.
“I want to tell our people not to respond rashly and I want them to act according to the law,” he said, adding that he expected to be arrested himself. Reuters was subsequently unable to contact him.
The detentions came after days of escalating tension between the civilian government and the military that stirred fears of a coup in the aftermath of the election.
Rohingya refugees condemned the overthrow of a democratically elected government in Myanmar by the military on Monday, a community leader said in Bangladesh, where a number of them live after fleeing violence in the neighbouring country.
This is also as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday condemned the coup in Myanmar after the military seized power and imposed a state of emergency, saying Aung San Suu Kyi and other civilian leaders “must” be freed.
“I condemn the coup and unlawful imprisonment of civilians, including Aung San Suu Kyi, in Myanmar.
“The vote of the people must be respected and civilian leaders released,” Mr Johnson said on Twitter.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab also added his words of condemnation about the state of emergency the Myanmar military had imposed.
