
© National Democratic Institute
Aung San Suu Kyi, former defacto leader of Myanmar government
Myanmar police have charged ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi with possession of illegally-imported walkie-talkies,
which could result in a two-year prison sentence, as a civil disobedience campaign grew against the military's coup.
A document from a police station in the capital, Naypyitaw, said
military officers who searched Aung San Suu Kyi's residence had found handheld radios that were imported illegally and used without permission by her bodyguards. The charges, confirmed by members of her party, appear to carry a
maximum prison sentence of two years.
A state newspaper also reported that
the new military government would investigate what it has described as fraud in November's election, in which its proxy party was heavily defeated by Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD).
The ousted president, Win Myint, is meanwhile to be charged for allegedly breaching coronavirus laws by meeting people on the campaign trail.
The moves are likely to
fuel already simmering anger towards the military. In one of the first organised acts of defiance against the army since Monday's coup,
health workers in 70 hospitals and medical departments in Naypyidaw, Yangon and other towns and cities
said they would not work under the military regime, accusing the generals of placing their own priorities above those of ordinary people during the pandemic. Doctors are instead treating patients in their homes and at charity health clinics. Kyaw, a surgeon at West Yangon general hospital who has resigned from the government hospital where he worked said:
"We refuse to obey any order from the illegitimate military regime who demonstrated they do not have any regards for our poor patients. They will not stop this movement until the elected government is restored. I am upset about being apart from the patients, but I have no regrets, knowing that I did my best to help fight the pandemic."
Comment: With Biden in office, the U.S. has now officially become a neoracist state.