Myanmar’s Suu Kyi issued pre-emptive call to reject coup: party

(FILES) In this file photo taken on August 17, 2017 Myanmar’s State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi leaves after attending the funeral service for the National League for Democracy (NLD) party’s former chairman Aung Shwe in Yangon. – Myanmar’s military has detained the country’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the country’s president in a coup, a spokesman for her ruling party said February 1, 2021. (Photo by AUNG Kyaw Htet / AFP)

YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Myanmar’s de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi issued a pre-emptive call for people to reject any coup, before she was detained by the military on Monday, her party said.

Suu Kyi called on people “not to accept a coup”, according to a post on the official Facebook page of the chair of the National League for Democracy.

Myanmar’s military has put the country under a state of emergency for a year.

Suu Kyi’s message reiterated the National League for Democracy’s landslide victory in the November 2020 election.

The Facebook post noted the military’s actions could jeopardize the country’s efforts to fight a coronavirus outbreak.

Myanmar has registered more than 140,000 cases and more than 3,000 deaths.

The post said she had not accepted a controversial army-scripted 2008 constitution, but had abided by it since entering parliament.

The constitution carved out a powerful ongoing political role for the military, giving them control of the key interior, border and defence ministries and a bloc of parliamentary seats.

Suu Kyi and her government had been trying to amend the charter since winning the 2015 election, with little success.

During the last term, she circumvented a constitutional clause that prevented her from assuming the presidency by taking the de facto leadership role of “state counsellor”.

© Agence France-Presse