Myanmar's State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi detained in a military coup.
Video / AP
Myanmar police have filed charges against ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi for illegally importing walkie talkie radios, as a civil disobedience movement gathers pace across the Southeast Asian nation in protest at Monday's military coup against the democratically elected government.
The obscure charges under the Export and Import Law mean Suu Kyi, 75, who has been under house arrest since early Monday morning, will be detained until February 15 for investigations, according to a police document filed in a court in the capital Naypyitaw on Wednesday.
The document revealed the claim that at least 10 walkie talkies had been found in the possession of her security team during a search of her home.
It said the communications devices were imported illegally and used without permission, and requested her detention "in order to question witnesses, request evidence and seek legal counsel after questioning the defendant".
A separate document showed police filed charges against ousted President Win Myint for offences under the Natural Disaster Management Law, linked to an incident in September when he allegedly waved to a passing convoy of party supporters from outside the Presidential Palace.
He has been accused of violated Covid-19 prevention rules issued by the ministry of health for the election campaign, and has also been remanded in custody.
The charges against both leaders could see them jailed for up to three years and require their National League of Democracy party to revoke their membership.
Myanmar's army seized power on Monday, cutting short a transition to democracy in a takeover that has drawn condemnation from the international community and stoked widespread public anger and defiance across the country.
Staff at 70 hospitals and medical departments in 30 towns stopped work on Wednesday in protest at the military's actions.
A Facebook statement issued by the Myanmar Civil Disobedience Movement on Wednesday morning said the military had put "their own interests above our vulnerable population, who have been facing medical, economic and social hardships during this global pandemic".
It made a direct appeal to the international medical community to pressure foreign governments not to recognise the "illegitimate military regime".
The 15-member United Nations Security Council held an emergency teleconference on Tuesday to discuss Myanmar's security but has so far stopped short of issuing a statement condemning the military's actions.
Talks among Security Council members, which includes China – one of Myanmar's biggest trading partners - are said to be continuing to seek agreement on a statement urging the restoration of democracy. The UN missions for China and Russia have sent it to their capitals for review.
Aung San Suu Kyi was charged over importing walkie talkies. Photo / AP
Christine Schraner Burgener, the UN's ambassador to Myanmar, has called the military's declaration of a one-year state of emergency "unconstitutional and illegal" and said its proposal to hold elections again should be discouraged.
"At this point in time, we must ensure the protection of people of Myanmar and their fundamental rights. We must do everything to prevent violence from breaking out," she added.
Barbara Woodward, Britain's UN ambassador, the current council president, told reporters after the meeting that ambassadors echoed widespread international concerns about the military's action at the virtual session.
"And we welcome the role of regional partners ... to resolve this crisis," including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, she said.
The United States on Tuesday determined that the military's seizure of power amounts to a coup, which will trigger restrictions on American aid to the Southeast Asian nation's government. Joe Biden, the US president, had already warned that the military leadership faces new sanctions for its takeover.
The move has sparked concerns about a rise in internal instability that could impact Myanmar's immediate neighbours.
Myanmar's fragile ceasefire with several armed ethnic insurgent movements operating in borderzones is in danger of unraveling, a senior representative of a coalition of rebel groups told Reuters on Wednesday.
General Yawd Serk of the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS), who is also acting chairman of a group representing 10 groups in a National Ceasefire Agreement, said "the military has put its self-interest first, and this caused a loss of trust".
Ousted president Win Myint also faces an obscure charge. Photo / AP
Signs of dissent have also begun to emerge among the general population after citizens were initially stunned by the coup in the early hours of Monday – the day its new parliament should have begun sitting.
On Tuesday night, people began banging pots and honking car horns in the main commercial city of Yangon, chanting "evil be gone" in the biggest public display of anger so far.
Protesters have so far not taken to the streets en masse in a country with a recent history of violent suppression of pro-democracy movements, but military supporters have been spotted celebrating, some brandishing knives.
Reports emerged overnight that youth activists had gone into hiding as the army widened its crackdown and raided their homes and university hostels.
On Tuesday, the Yangon Youth Network activist group, one of Myanmar's biggest, and the federation of student unions launched their own civil disobedience campaigns, echoing the open defiance of the medical profession, which has been dubbed the "red ribbon movement".
In this Nov. 11, 2020, file photo, police stand guard behind barbed wire as they attempt to stop protesters outside Union Election Commission office in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. Photo / AP
Doctors, who have been bearing the brunt of the raging pandemic in an already overburdened healthcare system, have said they will only return to work for the government that was democratically elected in a November poll, under the leadership of the widely popular Aung San Suu Kyi.
"We will care for the patients, but we won't do anything related to the military government," Dr Yin May Aung, an assistant surgeon at a Yangon hospital, told the Telegraph.
"Our red ribbon campaign doesn't mean we will neglect patients ... our motive is to show we do not accept the military coup at all. We will fight back until we die, and we will keep doing civil disobedience campaigns on social media."
The doctors protest presents a powerful challenge to the military chief Min Aung Hlaing, who has declared fighting the coronavirus as one of his main priorities. Myanmar was hit badly by a surge in cases late last year which has killed more than 3100 people and infected more than 140,000.
Resistance to the military takeover has also spread across social media, where many Facebook users have changed their profile pictures to Suu Kyi, or the red colour of her National League for Democracy party.
Some have pictured themselves making a three-fingered salute popularised by the Hollywood movie, The Hunger Games, and adopted by Thai pro-democracy protesters as a sign of defiance.
Others announced boycotts of beer and other products from companies with links to the army's extensive business holdings.
