let's start with the military coup in
myanmar police have filed several
charges against the elected leader
angsan tsuchi
she hasn't been seen since her arrest on
monday and she remains in custody
the charges she faces are unexpected
first of all she's charged with
breaching the country's strict
import and export laws she's also
accused of possessing unlawful
communications devices
and we know that's related to seven
walkie-talkies used by her security
guards
which the authorities say they found in
a house
here's our southeast asia correspondent
jonathan head they're obviously absurd i
mean just imagine she was the
de facto head of state in the country um
any walkie-talkies in her home would
would have been used by her security
guards the idea that those are somehow
illegal is is laughable
everyone and myanmar will know this is a
device it's a way of trying to
neutralize her
just think about this the military
launched their coup because aung san
tsuchi's party won
yet another election she's won every
election she's ever contested
by really significant margins they won
by their biggest margin of all
last november if the military is to
fulfill its promise of holding another
election and it has pledged it will do
that
it has to find a way of getting her out
of that election and this charge
i would imagine is there perhaps the
first way they're going to you
to use to try to do that it's not the
first time anxiety has been detained she
spent nearly 15 years in detention in
myanmar while she campaigned for
democracy
and when the country introduced
democratic reforms she was hailed she
won the nobel peace prize
she julie won elections too and the
tactic she's now facing
will be to familiar to her because of
that here's jonathan head
they did it before the 2010 election one
run by the military
when she they didn't want her to to run
to even try to run for office
and charged her then after an american
man had swum across a lake
to her home where she was then being
held under house arrest they managed to
get her then on
breaking house arrest laws they jailed
her well kept her in her home for for 18
months
and her sentence finished just after the
election took place
well the military is also targeting
myanmar's now ousted president win mint
he's been charged with violating laws
that ban gatherings during the pandemic
and just as with aung san tsuchi a
guilty verdict could mean he's barred
from running for office something that
becomes relevant
if the military chooses to hold swift
elections
now neither ang san tsuji or president
have been heard from
since the military seized power on
monday morning hundreds of mps were also
detained
but they were told on tuesday they could
leave the guest houses where they'd been
put in the capital
among them is zinma um she previously
spent
11 years in jail on political charges
under an earlier military dictatorship
and she's been speaking to the bbc it's
current situation is a very very tough
and challenge situation everybody who
voted for us i'd be very
upset and then our feelings and our
hearts are with
you and then we will stand
for their rights and their votes now in
sansuchi's national league for democracy
won a huge majority
in november's election and although
there haven't been street protests this
week
we have seen other acts of defiance
against the coup
these pictures came in earlier
are doctors and nurses chanting outside
their hospital and health workers across
the country have launched a red ribbon
campaign of civil disobedience
against the coup also for the second
night in a row people in yangon
have done this
[Music]
we also know because of the crackdown on
the streets activists
are moving their activities online we
are protesting since day one
since the since the first hour actually
we are protesting in our own way and
you know 2021 we are in 2021 things have
changed a lot we have digital devices
we have digital power we have digital
space
it is quite different than in 2007 or
1988 i think
our generation is making the most out of
it we were never silent since day one
now as you might expect international
condemnation is growing a spokesperson
for the un says the charges against aung
san tsuchi
undermine democracy and the rule of law
we've also heard from the g7 which
includes britain the u.s and germany
it's demanding that the civilian
government is reinstated
and we've also heard directly from the
u.s here's white house press secretary
jen soki obviously um the detention
continued detention of onsen tsuchi
other civilian officials
and the declaration of national state of
emergency are a direct assault on
burma's transition
to democracy and the rule of law we're
continuing to
review sanction our sanctions
authorities and other options uh it is
certainly a priority
to this administration i don't have an
exact timeline for you but it is a it is
a priority and certain
certainly reviewing our sanctions
authorities and seeing where there's
action
to take there is something the team is
focused on in an unsurprising
development there's a different
narrative coming from china which is
myanmar's largest trading partner
this editorial in the global times calls
on the west not to add fuel to the fire
by forcefully intervening in myanmar's
affairs
it goes on intervention should be
conducive to promoting dialogue and
peacefully resolving the crisis it
should not aggravate tensions
and turn the situation into a new
deadlock
well thinly is a burmese journalist
based in rome
and thank you very much indeed for for
joining us how do you assess
efforts by the international community
to apply pressure
to the burmese military um thanks for
having me ross well
you know unfortunately i think it is
going to be limited
um in terms of what the international
community can do
they already have you know arms
embargoes and
targeted sanctions against some of the
hunter leaders
um including the commander-in-chief men
online the problem
or at least perhaps i should say the the
more
impactful pressure would actually come
from regional partners like
china korea russia india the ones that
still
provide military support uh in japan
that still provides a lot of funding and
unfortunately we're not seeing
you know a lot of effort on that score
like you said
editorial in the chinese newspaper says
it all
now the burmese military would have been
able to predict reasonably accurately
how
china would react how the u.s would
react how the un would react none of
these reactions have been a surprise so
what's its calculation here because it
leaves itself
very alienated well i don't think
the myanmar army has ever to be
perfectly honest with you really worried
about the international
um perception of it
and if it has it would have you know
changed uh
the way it operated a long time ago it
wouldn't have staged this coup
um to be honest like what jonathan has
said earlier i think
that my speculation is that what they
want is to try and disband
the nld and to try and get dwansenstuji
out of the picture
because there's no other way they can
either win elections or have some sort
of legitimacy
as long as the party and the leader is
still there
but help me understand how realistic
that is people watching around the world
will know and sensui very well they
won't know so much about her party
does it have sufficient infrastructure
and strength to withstand that kind of
pressure
well the nld is more than doranson suchi
but you are absolutely right
you know i remember five years ago um
when the
when when you know the nld came to power
on election day
you ask people who they're voting for
and you know
a lot of people will say nlt but so many
people would say were voting for dosu
even though she wasn't running in their
constituencies
so she is definitely the face of it and
the main reason people vote
for nld is because of her um
there are a lot of younger um more you
know
dynamic lawmakers in the nld but they
really haven't had much of a chance
to make an impact you know they've only
done one
um round five years ago you know
in the legislature so it is it is a real
i think threat um that if she is no
longer there
the nld you know may go back to its bare
bones operations like it was in the
1990s and 2000s
and just quickly before we finish i
wonder how easy has it been or how hard
has it been for you to communicate with
with friends and family in myanmar
well the first few hours of when you
know speculation
was right that there was a coup it was
pretty difficult to contact people
yangon or the former capital rangoon it
was okay but napier was pretty much
under lockdown and it was very difficult
to reach people
it's getting better but also you know
people
are wising up to it like the activists
said is very different now
now there is a lot more reliable
internet people know how to use mobile
phones and in
you know information technology i was
just speaking to an activist
today who said they were using vpn
um to to talk so it's it's it's
the first day was quite worrying it's
gotten better but we don't know
how long that will last the army could
go in and tell all the operators to just
shut down
and they might not necessarily have a
choice or say in it