Myanmar’s people will be forced to make“huge sacrifices” as a result of the military coup, a former UN rights investigator said Monday, reports AFP.
The country’s military seized power on Monday, detaining democraticallyelected leader Aung San SuuKyi and declaring a one-year state of emergency.
The intervention followed weeks of rising tensions between the military —which ruled the country for nearly five decades — and the civiliangovernment over elections in November last year that SuuKyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) won easily. “The situation was the one we were concerned about,” said Yanghee Lee, auniversity professor in Seoul who previously served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar.
A coup in Myanmar six decades ago followed by over 50 years of militaryrule had “greatly regressed” the country’s democracy and civilian life, she added, and warned of a similar effect this time.
“It seems the citizens of Myanmar will once again make huge sacrificesthrough the coup,” Lee told AFP.
Myanmar’s November vote was only the second democratic election thecountry had seen since it emerged from the 49-year grip of military rule in 2011. The NLD swept the polls and was expecting to give the 75-year-old SuuKyi a new five-year term. SuuKyi is an immensely popular figure in Myanmar for her opposition tothe military, having spent the best part of two decades under house arrestduring the previous dictatorship.
The military has for weeks complained that the polls were riddled withirregularities, and claimed to have uncovered more than 10 million instances of voter fraud. It had demanded the government-run election commission release voter listsfor cross-checking — which the commission did not do.
