Myanmar’s military has detained the country’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the president, and other MPs in a coup.
Suu Kyi and President Win Myint were arrested early Monday, just hours before a new government which was elected in a vote held last year was due to be sworn in.
Military leaders have declared a year-long state of emergency and appointed Vice President Myint Swe – a former general – as acting president.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy had humiliated the military-backed USDP party in the vote, winning by a wider margin than it did during the 2015 election.
The NLD released a statement they said had been written by Suu Kyi before her arrest, which said: ‘The actions of the military are actions to put the country back under a dictatorship.
‘I urge people not to accept this, to respond and wholeheartedly to protest against the coup by the military.’
The United States, Britain, Japan and Australia were among nations condemning the coup early Monday, while China – which backs the military – urged all sides to ‘resolve their differences… to protect political and social stability’.
