Myanmar’s Suu Kyi detained once more with out her previous assist

A day after Myanmar’s army pulled off a well-choreographed coup, the nation’s civilian chief, Aung San Suu Kyi, finds herself proper again the place she was simply over a decade in the past – underneath home arrest.
But this time, her standoff with the army comes after she has sorely upset many once-staunch supporters within the worldwide neighborhood by cozying as much as the nation’s generals whereas in energy. Leaders within the West are denouncing her detention, in fact, however they not view the Nobel laureate as a paragon of democratic management.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy social gathering gained final November’s elections by a landslide, catching the generals abruptly. They instantly cried voter fraud, an allegation the nation’s election fee has dismissed, and proved Monday who actually controls the nation, detaining Suu Kyi and different prime leaders underneath the quilt of darkness, simply hours earlier than a brand new session of Parliament was set to convene.
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With flights grounded and communications largely minimize, Myanmar plunged again into isolation and darkness, ending 10 years of latest freedoms and quasi-civilian rule that the Obama administration held up as a beacon of nascent democracy. The military-owned Myawaddy TV mentioned the nation could be underneath a one-year state of emergency.
Now, it’s not clear who can lead the nation out of the wilderness, with Suu Kyi’s fame overseas badly tarnished.
“I believe that Aung San Suu Kyi has been an accomplice with the military,” mentioned veteran US diplomat Bill Richardson. “I hope she realizes that her compact with the devil has boomeranged against her, and that she will now take the right stand on behalf of democracy, and become a true advocate for human rights. But if she doesn’t step aside”, he mentioned, “I think the NLD needs to find new leaders.”
Suu Kyi, the daughter of independence hero and father of the nation, spent nearly 15 years underneath home arrest earlier than her launch in 2010. Her robust stand in opposition to the junta turned her into an emblem of peaceable resistance in opposition to oppressors and gained her the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.
During her years of confinement, a parade of overseas diplomats, human rights advocates and Nobel laureates streamed into her lakeside villa, demanding the hardline army free the elegant lady often called “The Lady,” who usually wears flowers in her hair.
But since her launch and return to politics, Suu Kyi has been closely criticized for the political gamble she made: displaying deference to the army whereas ignoring and, at instances, even defending atrocities, most notably a 2017 crackdown on Rohingya Muslims that the United States and others have labeled genocide.
When she disputed allegations on the U.N. International Court of Justice at The Hague simply over a yr in the past that military personnel killed Rohingya civilians, torched homes and raped ladies, fellow Nobel Prize winner Jody Williams noticed it as a betrayal.
“Beyond rhetoric during election campaigns, what does she really believe in? What does democracy mean to her?” requested Williams, who was honored in 1997 for her work to ban landmines.
Suu Kyi referred to as such criticism unfair, insisting that she had by no means thought-about herself a human rights icon, and that that title had been thrust upon her. She had all the time been, she argued, a politician.
While she has remained immensely widespread at residence, that compromise has misplaced her supporters overseas and raises the query of if and the way she may lead the nation out of the newest disaster.
So far, she has referred to as for civil disobedience to withstand the coup however it’s not clear how the Myanmar folks will react and the streets of Yangon have been quiet. In 1988 and 2007, folks took to the streets in drive to protest dictatorship.
It’s additionally not clear the generals will ever let her return to energy.
“There is little future for her I believe in this point in time, and, after all, I do think that is what the military want most,” mentioned Larry Jagan, an impartial analyst. “They do not trust her, they do not like her, and they do not want her to be part of the country’s future.”
Still, others say her recognition at residence means any democratic transition must undergo her.
“Suu Kyi will be 76 or 77 when the next election is held. She will be weakened but will remain No. 1 as long as she is alive,” mentioned Robert Taylor, a distinguished scholar of Myanmar’s political historical past. “The military will give her a chance if she gets a majority, but they are hoping she will not.”