introduced a bill in Parliament to create a new post for Ms. In 2015, when the country held national elections, her party, the National League of Democracy, won in a landslide victory.Ī year later, the N.L.D. Soe Zeya Tun/Reutersĭaw Aung San Suu Kyi has long been a source of frustration among Myanmar’s military, so much so that it kept her under house arrest for nearly 15 years until 2010.Īnalysts say the Tatmadaw, as the Myanmar military is known, has resented her overwhelming popularity among the people. The verdict on Tuesday is the first of several that are expected to be announced in the coming months.Īt the opening of a conference in Naypyitaw, in August 2016, Aung San Suu Kyi and Senior Gen. Prosecutors have continued to slap more charges on Ms. It carries a maximum sentence of three years and states that anyone who “publishes or circulates any statement, rumor or report” with “intent to cause, or which is likely to cause, fear or alarm to the public” could be found liable. Rights activists have condemned the charge of incitement, saying that it is used to intimidate critics of the military. Just hours before she and her colleagues from the National League of Democracy Party were to take their seats in Parliament, military officers detained them, accusing them of voter fraud. She has not been seen in public or been able to speak to anyone beside from her lawyers since she was detained on Feb. Aung San Suu Kyi was elected in 2015, she was forced to share power with the army, which appointed 25 percent of Parliament. The country had been ruled by the military for half a century since 1962.
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Aung San Suu Kyi was seen as the only politician who could lead Myanmar toward full democracy. The National Unity Government, a group of deposed civilian leaders, said last week that it had raised $6.3 million from people who bought “bonds” to fund its revolution.įor many of her supporters, Ms. The junta has responded by cracking down - it has killed 1,297 people and arrested more than 10,500 others, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), a rights organization based in Thailand.
A growing number of soldiers are defecting, teaming up with armed protesters and insurgent groups to launch hit-and-run attacks against the military. In the months since the coup, people have gathered in the streets, doctors and nurses have stopped work in protest, and many have refused to pay taxes in a campaign known as the Civil Disobedience Movement.ĭespite the threat of arrest, there is still widespread support for the movement. The United Nations and foreign governments have described the trials as politically motivated. Aung San Suu Kyi led her party to a landslide election victory, trouncing the military-backed opposition party.Ī guilty verdict would likely galvanize a protest movement that has spurred thousands of people to take up arms against the army since February, when the generals seized power. The ruling on Tuesday on the charge of inciting public unrest was expected to come a year after Ms. But her reputation on the international stage was tarnished over her complicity in the military’s mass atrocities against the Rohingya. She is held up as an almost godlike figure among her supporters in Myanmar, who describe her as a defender of the country’s democracy, for which she won a Nobel Peace Prize. Aung San Suu Kyi, 76, is a flawed hero for a troubled nation. It was unclear why the judge announced the delay. The court was expected to deliver the first verdict on inciting public unrest on Tuesday, but the judge adjourned the case until next month, according to a source familiar with the proceedings. The junta has barred all five of her lawyers from speaking to the news media, saying that their communications could “destabilize the country.” Her trials have been held in closed-door hearings in Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s capital. Aung San Suu Kyi, who was detained in a military coup in February, is facing 11 charges and a maximum imprisonment of 102 years.
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Agence France-Presse - Getty ImagesĪ judge in Myanmar on Tuesday delayed the announcement of a highly anticipated verdict against the country’s ousted civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who is facing a series of rulings that could keep her locked up for the rest of her life. Image Holding up a poster featuring Aung San Suu Kyi during a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon in February.