Myanmar police move to stamp out protests after envoy appeals to UN to stop coup – Times of India

Myanmar police moved decisively on Saturday in a bid to stop opponents of navy rule gathering after Myanmar’s UN envoy urged the United Nations to use “any means necessary” to stop a February 1 coup.
The Southeast Asian nation has been in turmoil because the military seized energy and detained elected chief Aung San Suu Kyi and far of her occasion management, alleging fraud in a November election her occasion had gained in a landslide.
Uncertainty has grown over Suu Kyi’s whereabouts, because the impartial Myanmar Now web site on Friday quoted officers of her National League for Democracy (NLD) occasion as saying she had been moved this week from home arrest to an undisclosed location.
The coup has introduced tons of of hundreds of protesters to Myanmar’s streets and drawn condemnation from Western international locations, with some imposing restricted sanctions.
More protests had been deliberate for Saturday however police had been out in pressure early in the primary metropolis of Yangon and elsewhere, deployed in numbers at standard protest websites and detaining individuals as they started to congregate, witnesses mentioned.
At least two media staff had been amongst these detained in Yangon, witnesses mentioned.
“They also came to arrest me but I escaped and ran away,” mentioned one other media employee who declined to be recognized.
The police motion got here a day after police broke up protests in Yangon, the second metropolis of Mandalay, Naypyitaw and different cities with rubber bullets, stun grenades and pictures into the air. Several individuals had been harm.
At the UN General Assembly, Myanmar’s Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun mentioned he was talking on behalf of Suu Kyi’s authorities and appealed to the physique “to use any means necessary to take action against the Myanmar military and to provide safety and security for the people”.
“We need further strongest possible action from the international community to immediately end the military coup, to stop oppressing the innocent people … and to restore the democracy,” he informed the 193-member group, receiving applause as he completed.
Kyaw Moe Tun appeared emotional as he learn the assertion on behalf of a bunch of elected politicians that he mentioned represented the respectable authorities.
Delivering his closing phrases in Burmese, the profession diplomat raised the three-finger salute of professional-democracy protesters and introduced “our cause will prevail”.
Reuters was not instantly ready to contact the military for remark.
Opponents of the coup hailed Kyaw Moe Tun as a hero and flooded social media with messages of thanks.
“The people will win and the power-obsessed junta will fall,” one protest chief, Ei Thinzar Maung, wrote on Facebook.
U.N. particular envoy on Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener pushed the United Nations for a collective “clear signal in support of democracy”, telling the General Assembly no nation ought to recognise or legitimise the junta.
China’s envoy didn’t criticize the coup and mentioned the state of affairs was Myanmar’s “internal affairs”, saying it supported diplomacy by Southeast Asian international locations, which protesters concern might give credibility to the ruling generals.
Singapore mentioned violence towards unarmed civilians was inexcusable.
‘LOSS OF RIGHTS’
A lawyer performing for Suu Kyi, Khin Maung Zaw, informed Reuters he had additionally heard from NLD officers that she had been moved from her house within the capital, Naypyitaw, however couldn’t affirm it. Authorities didn’t reply to a request for remark.
The lawyer mentioned he had been given no entry to Suu Kyi forward of her subsequent listening to on Monday, including: “I’m concerned that there will be a loss of rights to access to justice and access to legal counsel”.
Protesters have been demanding the discharge of Suu Kyi, 75, and recognition of the outcome of final 12 months’s election.
Military chief General Min Aung Hlaing says authorities had been utilizing minimal pressure. Nevertheless, a minimum of three protesters have died. The military says a policeman was additionally killed.
At least 771 persons are beneath detention or have excellent costs which have been laid towards them because the coup, in accordance to Myanmar’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate and daughter of Myanmar’s independence hero, spent almost 15 years beneath home arrest beneath earlier juntas. She faces costs of illegally importing six walkie-talkie radios and of violating a pure catastrophe legislation by breaching coronavirus protocols.
The military has promised an election however not given a date. It has imposed a one-12 months state of emergency.
The query of an election is on the centre of a diplomatic effort by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is a member. Indonesia has taken the lead, however coup opponents concern the efforts might legitimise the junta.