If the first image of Aung San Suu Kyi was published just over a week ago since the military staged a coup in Myanmar four months ago, the latest news now considers the Burmese leader missing.
The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, who appeared in a trial against her on May 24 in the capital, Naypyidó, has been transferred by the military junta from her home in that city, where she was under house arrest, to an undetermined place. , according to the clandestine civil government formed by its allies and which claims to be the legitimate voice of the country. There are also indications that former President Win Mynt has also been evacuated from his residence in Naypyidó.
“We have heard from reliable sources that President Win Mynt and the State Councilor, Aung San Suu Kyi [ the country’s de facto leader from 2015 until February], have been taken to an unknown location,” the so-called said in a statement. Government of National Unity, formed in hiding by allies of Suu Kyi and Mynt after the coup.
Both Suu Kyi and Win Mynt were arrested on February 1 in Naypyidó, when the Armed Forces staged a coup that interrupted the constitution of the new parliament, scheduled for that day.
That act would have marked the second legislature with Suu Kyi in command of the Southeast Asian country, after her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD, for its acronym in English), won comfortably in the elections last November, after having also won the previous ones in 2015. The last elections were branded as fraudulent by the military and that was their pretext for carrying out the coup.
Since then, Suu Kyi has been charged with six crimes, which her lawyers consider politically motivated. Among them he is accused of violating the Law of Official Secrets, the most serious, and of violating an import and export law for the alleged illegal possession of walkie-talkies .
There are also several charges against Win Mynt, official president of Myanmar (formerly Burma) during Suu Kyi’s term, since the current Burmese constitution – drawn up by the military – prevents the title from falling to someone with a foreign husband or descent. The clause is considered intended to remove Nobel, who had two children with a British academic, from office. The one known as La Dama nevertheless became a de facto leader of the country under the title of State Councilor.
After months without public appearances, Suu Kyi appeared on May 24 in a trial against her in Naypyidó. The only image of her intervention, revealed by the official Burmese press, shows her protected by a mask attending the hearing with Win Mynt.
That day, before going to court, he told his legal team that his party, the NLD, “was created by the people, and will continue to exist as long as the people exist.” Suu Kyi’s words followed the announcement of the Burmese Election Commission, now controlled by the military, to dissolve that formation on May 21.
Khin Maung Zaw, head of Suu Kyi and Win Mynt’s legal team, said the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize – an award given for his leadership in the pro-democracy movement in Myanmar since the 1988 uprisings, when he helped found the NLD – She had told her lawyers that, already the night before her appearance at the trial, she had been transferred to an unknown destination.
“After the hearing, we have not been able to have contact with her. She is a very beloved leader and we are very concerned for her safety, ”he stressed. The next appearance in a court hearing of the leader is scheduled for June 7, although it is unknown whether she will be allowed to attend like last week or will attend via videoconference, similar to the previous times.
Lawsuits
The release of Suu Kyi and her NLD partners has been one of the demands of protesters demanding the return of democracy almost daily across the country since February. These petitions have been violently suppressed by Burmese security forces, responsible for the deaths of 841 civilians and the arrest of 4,443 since then, according to the local group Association for the Protection of Political Prisoners.
This week, the president of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN, of which the former Burma and nine other nations in the region are members), Erywan Yusof, is expected to visit Myanmar.
Although the group has called for an end to the violence in Myanmar, its policy of non-interference and the refusal of some of its members – Singapore and Thailand – to support a UN resolution to impose an arms embargo on Myanmar, according to Reuters, it makes foresee little progress of its supposed mediation.