Groups condemn Myanmar military coup, call for release of detainees

 

Soldiers inside City Hall in Yangon, Myanmar, this morning. (Reuters pic)

PETALING JAYA: Klang MP Charles Santiago has slammed Myanmar’s military for staging a coup, urging them to release those arrested this morning.

Santiago, who chairs the Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights, said the latest developments in Myanmar were a “slap in the face to every Burmese citizen who went out to vote in the last November elections”.

Along with the release of those arrested, he said, the army must immediately return their tanks to the barracks and restore all communication services.

“The people of Myanmar had their say in November’s election, and overwhelmingly sent the message that they reject army rule. The military must respect the will of the people and allow Parliament to proceed,” he said in a statement.

Charles Santiago.

He called on the rest of the Asean region to condemn the show of force against democratically elected leaders, and to help de-escalate the situation.

Meanwhile, human rights group Fortify Rights urged the military to issue guarantees on the safety of those detained and cease further arrests.

It also called for the release of de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, along with other politicians and activists.

In a statement, Fortify Rights chief executive Matthew Smith said all communication and mobile phone networks must be restored out of respect for the right to free expression.

“A military coup is underway,” he said. “Access to information is critical for the Myanmar public right now.”

According to a source from the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, Smith said, the military detained all civilian members of parliament in the capital Naypyidaw on the day the Myanmar Parliament was supposed to convene.

“The military must respect the results of the 2020 elections and allow the Parliament to convene as scheduled,” he said, adding that governments around the world should condemn the military’s “blatant power grab”.

Myanmar’s military staged a coup this morning, detaining Suu Kyi and declaring they had taken control of the country for a year under a state of emergency.

The intervention came after weeks of rising tensions between the military, which ruled the country for nearly five decades, and the civilian government over allegations of fraud in November’s elections.

Just hours after the arrests, communications networks in Myanmar were restricted, with several mobile phone networks down and web connections severely disrupted. - FMT