Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and other ruling party officials were detained Monday in a move that raised concerns of a possible coup.   
 
The early-morning detentions came on the same day the new parliament was supposed to be inaugurated.   
 
Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint were taken early Monday, said the spokesman for the ruling party, the National League for Democracy.  
 
“I want to tell our people not to respond rashly and I want them to act according to the law,” spokesman Myo Nyunt said Monday, adding that he expected to be detained as well.  
 
“As far as we know, all the important people have been arrested by the Burmese military,” he said. “So, now we can say it is coup d’état. In Naypyidaw, Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint has been arrested, I heard. But we are not sure about members of Parliament in municipality compound, but we can assume that they have been arrested, too.”  
 
In a statement, the White House said, “The United States is alarmed by reports that the Burmese military has taken steps to undermine the country’s democratic transition,” adding that the U.S. urges “the military and all other parties to adhere to democratic norms and the rule of law, and to release those detained today.”  
 
“The United States opposes any attempt to alter the outcome of recent elections or impede Myanmar’s democratic transition and will take action against those responsible if these steps are not reversed,” the statement said.  FILE – Myanmar State Counselor and de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi arrives to vote early for the Nov. 8 general election, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Oct. 29, 2020. According to a party official, she and others have been detained in a morning raid.Phone and internet service in major cities in the country had been disrupted, according to multiple reports. MRTV, the state broadcaster, was off the air, reporting on Facebook that it was having technical issues.   
 
Soldiers were in the streets of both the capital, Naypyidaw, and the largest city, Yangon, according to multiple reports.   
 
The news of the arrests comes after months of tensions after the NLD’s landslide victory in November elections. Myanmar’s military claimed there had been voter fraud, an allegation rejected by the country’s election commission.   
 
On Saturday, the Tatmadaw, the official name of Myanmar’s military, released a statement arguing that voter fraud had taken place and the international community “should not be endorsing the next steps of the political process on a ‘business as usual’ basis.  
 
“The Tatmadaw is the one pressing for adherence to democratic norms,” the statement read. “It is not the outcome itself of the election that the Tatmadaw is objecting to. …Rather, the Tatmadaw finds the process of the 2020 election unacceptable, with over 10.5 million cases of potential fraud, such as nonexistent votes.”
 
In the past week, Myanmar’s military had dismissed rumors it would launch a coup after the military’s commander-in-chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, told senior officers that the constitution, which outlaws a coup, could be revoked if the laws were not being properly enforced.  
 
Over the past week, the military has deployed an unusually high number of tanks around the capital city, raising alarm among civilians and government officials. Supporters of Myanmar’s military take part in a protest against election results, in Yangon, Myanmar, Jan. 30, 2021.Myanmar’s newly elected Parliament was expected to convene for its first session in Naypyidaw on Monday (Feb. 1).  
 
The arrest of leaders in Myanmar, also known as Burma, is just the latest events in a country that has struggled between civilian and military rule and raises concerns that the nation’s transition to a democracy has stalled.
 
A former British colony until 1948, Myanmar has been ruled by dictators backed by the military from 1962 to 2010.   
 
An uprising in 1988 pushed for an election in 1990, which the National League for Democracy (NLD) party won in a landslide, but the elected members of Parliament were imprisoned, and the dictatorship continued.   
 
Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar’s independence hero, General Aung San, who was assassinated in 1947, emerged as a leader in the pro-democracy rallies and in the NLD. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 while under house arrest. 
 
In 2010, Senior General Than Shwe announced the country would be handed over to the civilian leaders, who included retired generals. They freed political prisoners, including the lawmakers from the National League for Democracy, and Aung San Suu Kyi, who was elected in 2012 by-election and later became the state counsellor of Myanmar.  
 
But Aung San Suu Kyi, 75, while popular among Myanmar’s Buddhist majority, has seen her international reputation decline over her government’s treatment of the country’s mostly Muslim Rohingya minority.  
 
In 2017, an Army crackdown against the Rohingya, sparked by deadly attacks on police stations in Rakhine state, led hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. The International Criminal Court is investigating the country for crimes against humanity.
 
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Thousands of Hong Kongers have already made the sometimes painful decision to leave behind their hometown and move to Britain since Beijing imposed a strict national security law on the Chinese territory last summer. Their numbers are expected to swell to the hundreds of thousands. Some are leaving because they fear punishment for supporting the pro-democracy protests that swept the former British colony in 2019. Others say China’s encroachment on their way of life and civil liberties has become unbearable, and they want to seek a better future for their children abroad. Most say they don’t plan to ever go back. The moves are expected to accelerate now that 5 million Hong Kongers are eligible to apply for visas to Britain, allowing them to live, work and study there and eventually apply to become British citizens. Applications for the British National Overseas visa officially opened Sunday, though many have already arrived on British soil to get a head start. FILE – A British National Overseas passports (BNO) and a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China passport are pictured in Hong Kong, Friday, Jan. 29, 2021.Britain’s government said some 7,000 people with British National Overseas passports — a travel document that Hong Kongers could apply for before the city was handed over to Chinese control in 1997 — have arrived since July on the previously allowed six month visa. It estimates that over 300,000 people will take up the offer of extended residency rights in the next five years. “Before the announcement of the BN(O) visa in July, we didn’t have many enquiries about U.K. immigration, maybe less than 10 a month,” said Andrew Lo, founder of Anlex Immigration Consultants in Hong Kong. “Now we receive about 10 to 15 calls a day asking about it.” Mike, a photojournalist, said he plans to apply for the visa and move to Leeds with his wife and young daughter in April. His motivation to leave Hong Kong came after the city’s political situation deteriorated following the anti-government protests and he realized that the city’s police force was not politically neutral. The police have been criticized by pro-democracy supporters for brutality and the use of excessive violence. Mike said moving to Britain was important as he believed the education system in Hong Kong will be affected by the political situation and it will be better for his daughter to study in the U.K. Mike agreed to speak on the condition that he only be identified by his first name out of fear of official retaliation. Lo said that with the new visa, the barrier to entry to move to the U.K. becomes extremely low, with no language or education qualification requirements. British National Overseas passport holders need to prove that they have enough money to support themselves for six months and prove that they are clear of tuberculosis, according to the U.K. government. Currently, Lo assists three to four families a week in their move to the U.K. About 60% of those are families with young children, while the remaining are young couples or young professionals. Cindy, a Hong Kong businesswoman and the mother of two young children, arrived in London last week. In Hong Kong she had a comfortable lifestyle. She owned several properties with her husband and the business she ran was going well. But she made up her mind to leave it all behind as she felt that the city’s freedoms and liberties were eroding and she wanted to ensure a good future for her kids. Cindy, who spoke on the condition she only be identified by her first name out of concern of official retaliation, said it was important to move quickly as she feared Beijing would soon move to halt the exodus. FILE – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson takes questions in parliament in London, Britain, Jan. 20, 2021 in this still image taken from a video.Prime Minister Boris Johnson said this week the visa offer shows Britain is honoring its “profound ties of history” with Hong Kong, which was handed over to China on the understanding that it would retain its Western-style freedoms and much of its political autonomy not seen on mainland China. Beijing said Friday it will no longer recognize the British National Overseas passport as a travel document or form of identification, and criticized Britain’s citizenship offer as a move that “seriously infringed” on China’s sovereignty. It was unclear what effect the announcement would have because many Hong Kongers carry multiple passports. Beijing drastically hardened its stance on Hong Kong after the 2019 protests turned violent and plunged the city into a months-long crisis. Since the security law’s enactment, dozens of pro-democracy activists have been arrested, and the movement’s young leaders have either been jailed or fled abroad. Because the new law broadly defined acts of subversion, secession, foreign collusion and terrorism, many in Hong Kong fear that expressing any form of political opposition — even posting messages on social media — could land them in trouble. “This is a really unique emigration wave — some people haven’t had time to actually visit the country they’re relocating to. Many have no experience of living abroad,” said Miriam Lo, who runs Excelsior UK, a relocation agency. “And because of the pandemic, they couldn’t even come over to view a home before deciding to buy.”  
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