Myanmar’s Suu Kyi urged people to ‘resist’ military coup before arrest

New Delhi(Agency): Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has called on people to reject the coup, before she was arrested by the military which has now taken over the country.

According to Press TV, the military detained Suu Kyi and other senior members of her governing party on Sunday and declared a one-year emergency. It handed power to Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing.

Before her arrest, Suu Kyi urged people in a letter “not to accept this” and “protest against the coup,” according to her party. She said the military’s actions would put the country back under dictatorship.

The military issued a statement in the early hours of Monday, saying it seized control due to “election fraud.”

The Southeast Asian country, also known as Burma, was ruled by the armed forces until 2011, when Suu Kyi ended the military rule and introduced her reforms.

The military has accused Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) Party of massive voter fraud in the November election that gave it a landslide victory.

Tensions grew after General Min Aung Hlaing delivered a speech warning that Myanmar’s constitution could be “revoked” if it was not respected.

Suu Kyi, who won a Nobel Peace Prize 30 years ago for her resistance against the military and was held under house arrest for 15 years, faces international scrutiny for her support for a military crackdown against the Rohingya Muslim people in the western State of Rakhine.

She defended the military atrocities against the Rohingya people at the United Nations’ top court in the Hague in December 2019.