World leaders must ensure Myanmar's military coup fails, says UN chief

The military alleges there was voter fraud in recent elections in Myanmar. Credit: AP

World leaders must ensure that Myanmar's coup fails, the UN secretary general has said.

It comes as the country's new military government blocked access to Facebook as resistance to Monday’s coup surged amid calls for civil disobedience to protest the ousting of the elected civilian government and its leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Top generals announced on Monday that they would take power for one year, accusing Ms Suu Kyi and her government of not investigating the military’s allegations of voter fraud in recent elections.

Ms Suu Kyi’s party overwhelmingly won the vote and the military-backed party did poorly.

Ms Suu Kyi and other leaders were arrested early on Monday morning.

In an interview on Washington Post Live, Antonio Guterres said the United Nations would work with key international players “to put enough pressure on Myanmar to make sure that this coup fails”.

A convoy of army vehicles patrol the streets of Mandalay Credit: AP

Also on Wednesday, the foreign ministers of the Group of Seven leading industrial nations - which the UK belongs to - issued a statement calling for Ms Suu Kyi and others to be released and for power to be restored to the democratically elected government.

Ms Suu Kyi appears likely to be detained until at least the middle of the month after police charged her with possession of illegally imported walkie talkies.

The charge came to light two days after she was placed under house arrest and appeared to be an effort to lend a legal veneer to her detention, though the generals have previously kept her and others locked up for years.

On Wednesday, the military government blocked access to Facebook as resistance to Monday’s coup surged.

Facebook is especially popular in Myanmar and the ousted government had commonly made public announcements on the social media site.

Internet users said the disruption began late on Wednesday night and mobile service provider Telenor Myanmar confirmed in a statement that mobile operators and internet service providers in Myanmar had received a directive from the communications ministry to temporarily block Facebook.

Telenor Myanmar, which is part of the Norwegian Telenor Group, said it would comply, though was concerned the order was a breach of human rights.

“Telecom providers in Myanmar have been ordered to temporarily block Facebook.

"We urge authorities to restore connectivity so that people in Myanmar can communicate with family and friends and access important information,” a spokesperson for Facebook said.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been charged with possessing illegally imported walkie-talkies. Credit: AP

The political party ousted in Monday’s coup and other activists in Myanmar have called for a campaign of civil disobedience to oppose the takeover.

In the vanguard are medical personnel, who have declared they will not work for the military government and who are highly respected for their work during the coronavirus pandemic that is taxing the country’s dangerously inadequate health system.

For a second night on Wednesday, residents in Yangon engaged in “noise protests,” with people banging pots and pans and honking car horns under cover of darkness.

The recent protests have revived a song closely associated with the failed 1988 uprising against military dictatorship.

Myanmar was under military rule for five decades after a 1962 coup, with Ms Suu Kyi’s past five years as leader its most democratic period.

Videos posted on social media showed medical personnel especially turned out to sing the song “Kabar Makyay Bu” — or “We Won’t Be Satisfied Until the End of the World” — which is sung to the tune of “Dust in the Wind,” a 1977 song by the US rock group Kansas.

Health workers in Yangon have begun a civil disobedience protest. Credit: AP

At the same time authorities were working to keep Ms Suu Kyi in detention, hundreds of politicians who had been forced to stay at government housing after the coup were told on Wednesday to leave the capital city within 24 hours and go home, a member of parliament from Ms Suu Kyi’s party said.

National League for Democracy (NDL) spokesperson Kyi Toe confirmed the charge against Ms Suu Kyi that carries a maximum sentence of three years in prison.

He also said the country’s ousted president, Win Myint, was charged with violating the natural disaster management law.

A leaked charge sheet dated February 1 indicates they can be held until February 15.

Police and court officials in the capital Naypyitaw could not immediately be contacted.

The takeover marked a shocking fall from power for Ms Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who had lived under house arrest for years as she tried to push her country towards democracy and then became its de facto leader after her party won elections in 2015.

Ms Suu Kyi had been a fierce critic of the army during her years in detention. But after her shift from democracy icon to politician, she worked with the generals and even defended their crackdown on Rohingya Muslims, damaging her international reputation.