Myanmar police file 2nd charge against Suu Kyi

YANGON • Myanmar police have filed a second charge against former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, after the military deposed her and seized power in a coup on Feb 1, her lawyer has said.

She has already been charged with importing walkie-talkies, but lawyer Khin Maung Zaw told local media yesterday she was facing a second charge of violating the country's Natural Disaster Law.

Former president Win Myint was also charged with breaching the same law over an election campaign rally that police say violated Covid-19 restrictions.

Mr Khin Maung Zaw said Ms Suu Kyi had met a judge on a video call due to Covid-19 regulations, but lawyers could not attend because they had not been granted power of attorney. Asked about her health, he said: "No news is good news. We haven't heard or received bad news."

The date of the next court hearing will be March 1, he said.

Ms Suu Kyi, 75, spent nearly 15 years under house arrest for her efforts to end military rule in Myanmar and is again being kept under guard at her home in Naypyitaw.

Myanmar's military yesterday denied that its ouster of the elected government was a coup and denounced protesters for inciting violence and intimidating civil servants. It also guaranteed that it would hold an election and hand power to the winner.

The military's justification of its Feb 1 seizure of power and arrest of Ms Suu Kyi and others came as protesters again took to the streets and after a United Nations envoy warned the army of "severe consequences" for any harsh response to the demonstrations.

"Our objective is to hold an election and hand power to the winning party," Brigadier-General Zaw Min Tun, spokesman for the ruling council, told the military's first news conference since it seized power.

The military has not given a date for a new election, but it has imposed a state of emergency for one year.

Brig-Gen Zaw Min Tun said the military would not hold power for long.

"We guarantee... that the election will be held," he told the news conference, which the military broadcast live over Facebook, a platform the military has banned.

Asked about the detention of Nobel Prize winner Suu Kyi and Mr Win Myint, he said the military would abide by the Constitution.

Despite the deployment of armoured vehicles and soldiers in some major cities on the weekend, protesters have kept up their campaign to oppose military rule and demand Ms Suu Kyi's release.

As well as the demonstrations in towns and cities across the ethnically diverse country, a civil disobedience movement has brought strikes that are crippling many functions of government.

Protesters blocked train services between Yangon and the southern city of Mawlamyine, milling onto a sun-baked stretch of railway track waving placards in support of the disobedience movement, live images broadcast by media showed.

"Release our leaders immediately" and "people's power, give it back", the crowd chanted.

Crowds also gathered in two places in the city of Yangon - at a traditional protest site near the main university campus and at the central bank, where protesters hoped to press staff to join the civil disobedience movement.

United Nations Special Envoy Christine Schraner Burgener spoke on Monday to the deputy head of the junta, urging restraint and the restoration of communications.

Meanwhile, China's Ambassador to Myanmar said yesterday the current political situation was "absolutely not what China wants to see" and dismissed social media rumours of Chinese involvement in the coup as "completely nonsense".

In an interview with local media, Ambassador Chen Hai said China maintained "friendly relations" with both the army and the former ruling civilian government.