YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Myanmar officials have accused the country’s deposed leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, of possessing illegally imported walkie-talkies, their allies said on Wednesday, a move that gives generals who overturned their legal foundations to hold her for two weeks.
The accusation came to light two days after Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest and it appeared to be an effort to lend her detention a legal veneer, although the generals had already held her and others in prison for years.
The military announced on Monday that they would take power for a year – accusing the Suu Kyi government of failing to investigate allegations of electoral fraud in the latest elections. Suu Kyi’s party swept the vote, and the military-backed party performed poorly.
National League for Democracy spokesman Kyi Toe confirmed the charge against Suu Kyi, which carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison. He also said that the country’s deposed president, Win Myint, was accused of violating the natural disaster management law. A leaked indictment sheet dated February 1 indicates that they can be held until February 15.
“It was clear that the military would seek some lawsuits against the leaders of the National League for Democracy and especially Aung San Suu Kyi to legitimize what they tried to do,” said Larry Jagan, an independent analyst at Myanmar Affairs. “And this is really a takeover.”
Police and court officials in the capital Naypyitaw could not be reached immediately.
While authorities were working to keep Suu Kyi in detention, hundreds of lawmakers who were forced to remain in government residences after the coup were told on Wednesday to leave the capital in 24 hours and return home, said a member of Parliament from the Suu Kyi party who is among the group. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of attracting the attention of the military.
The coup was a dramatic setback for Myanmar, which was progressing towards democracy, and highlighted the extent to which the generals ended up maintaining control of the Southeast Asian country.
In response to the coup, Suu Kyi’s party called for nonviolent resistance, and dozens of people in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, blew car horns and banged pots and pans on Tuesday night in a protest. Supporters of the military also demonstrated.
Medical workers have also declared that they will not work by the new military government in protest against the coup at a time when the country is fighting a steady increase in cases of COVID-19 with a dangerously inadequate health system. Photos were shared on social media showing healthcare professionals with red ribbons attached to their clothes or holding printed photos of red ribbons.
There were also protests in neighboring Thailand, where Khin Maung Soo, a citizen of Myanmar, said on Wednesday that he was speaking out to “show the world that we are not happy with what happened”.
He added: “We want the whole world to help us too.”
The acquisition marked a shocking fall in power for Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who lived under house arrest for years while trying to bring her country to democracy and became her de facto leader after her party won elections in 2015.
Suu Kyi had been a fierce critic of the army during his years of detention. But after her change from an icon of democracy to politics, she worked with generals and even defended her crackdown on Rohingya Muslims, damaging her international reputation.
The international community, which enthusiastically supported Myanmar’s nascent democracy, now faces a test. The United States threatened sanctions and classified the acquisition as a coup. The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting on Tuesday, but took no action.
Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Group of the 7 major industrialized countries released a statement on Wednesday calling for Suu Kyi and others to be released and for power to be restored to the democratically elected government. In an interview with Washington Post Live, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the UN would work with key international actors “to put enough pressure on Myanmar to ensure that this coup fails”.
While in power, Myanmar’s new leader said the military government plans to investigate alleged fraud in last year’s elections. General Min Aung Hlaing announced the measures on Tuesday at the first meeting of his new government in the capital, said the state newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar.
Although the military cited the government’s failure to properly investigate allegations of electoral irregularities as one of the reasons for the coup, the state Union Election Commission said there were no significant problems with the vote.
Analysts said Suu Kyi’s party’s overwhelming victory may have taken the military by surprise – and made the generals concerned about overpowering, although the constitution was carefully written to ensure that the military maintained significant control, including a allocation of 25% of seats in Parliament.
Min Aung Hlaing also said that the COVID-19 containment measures taken by the Suu Kyi government would be maintained.
Myanmar confirmed more than 140,600 cases, including about 3,100 deaths. Its health infrastructure is one of the weakest in Asia, according to UN research.
A statement released on Wednesday on behalf of the executive members of Suu Kyi’s party said officials began raiding party offices in Mandalay and other states and regions on Tuesday and seized documents and laptops.
The statement on the Facebook page of party spokesman Kyi Toe said locks were broken in several offices. He denounced the raids as illegal and demanded that they stop.
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Associated Press writers Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
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This story has been updated to correct that the charge against Suu Kyi carries a maximum sentence of three years, not two.