A court in Myanmar sentenced civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi to four years in prison on charges of 'inciting violence and violating COVID-19 rules', rendering another blow to democracy in a country plunged into chaos by a military coup.
The ruling is expected to be the first of many more to come. Suu Kyi is facing 11 charges in total, including corruption and the sharing of state secrets. If found guilty of all charges, the 76-year-old faces more than 100 years behind the bars. “It was already clear from day one of the coup that Aung San Suu Kyi was to be silenced, locked away indefinitely on trumped-up charges. So, these verdicts come as no surprise,” said Richard Horsey, a Political Analyst.
Suu Kyi was detained on February 1st when the military swept across the country arresting members of the democratically elected government led by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, including President Win Myint. She was tried in a special court in Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s modern capital, in proceedings barred from public view. Her attorneys were prohibited from speaking to the media.
The imprisonment of Suu Kyi now allows the military to run without having to face a galvanizing leader. A leader whose party twice won general elections in 2020 and 2015 at the expense of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party. Suu Kyi is the daughter of Aung San, the Father of modern-day Myanmar, who was assassinated in 1947 shortly before Britain relinquished control of the former colony.
Suu Kyi rose to prominence when she returned to Burma in 1988 from Britain and rallied pro-democracy supporters in Yangon, also known as Rangoon. She helped establish the National League for Democracy. Her activism was considered especially dangerous to the Tatmadaw because of her family background. Suu Kyi spent a total of 15 years under house arrest between 1989 and 2011. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
Crowd rammed by military vehicle
Protests against the violent rule across the country were crushed by troops ordered to fire automatic weapons on peaceful demonstrators. An estimated 1,300 people were killed and thousands arrested, according to one human rights group.
In the most recent show of brutality, a military vehicle rammed into a crowd of anti-junta protesters in Yangon on Sunday, killing five people and injuring at least 15.
Despite the use of excessive force, the military government led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing faces a crisis of authority. Guerrilla fighters and ethnic rebel groups in the country’s borderlands are posing a greater challenge than expected. Sporadic bombings and assassinations targeting soldiers and the junta’s supporters in several cities have diminished morale in the tightly controlled military, fueling defections.
Worsening the crisis is Myanmar’s free-falling economy, which will thrust nearly half of the nation’s 55 million people into poverty by early next year, according to a recent United Nations report. Despite the support from China, India and Russia, the military government finds itself diplomatically isolated, having failed to win recognition from the United Nations and after being barred from attending the biannual ASEAN summit in October. Min Aung Hlaing, who named himself prime minister of a caretaker government in August, said Myanmar will hold elections by 2023.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, lived under a military dictatorship for nearly five decades until democratic reforms were introduced in 2011. This ushered in a new era of economic development, civil society and contact with the outside world. The army, known as the Tatmadaw, however, still clung to power by giving its political representatives veto power in parliament — blocking the civilian government from reforming the country’s constitution.