Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party had romped to victory in the nationwide election of November 2020, collecting more than 80 per cent of parliamentary seats. It consolidated the party’s grip on government established by an earlier landslide result in a historic vote in 2015.
Loading
But less than three months after voters delivered the overwhelming endorsement, tanks rolled back into the capital and the military reversed course.
The coup came 10 years after the country began a gradual transition to democracy following decades of military rule.
Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar’s independence hero, spent 15 years under house arrest before her eventual release in 2010.
The 2021 army takeover has triggered 2½ years of chaos in which more than 3800 people have been killed, among them protesters who demonstrated against the coup and villagers who have been victims of air strikes and extrajudicial killings.
Loading
There have been 24,100 arrests and 19,700 people continue to be detained, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a non-governmental organisation that monitors conflict-related deaths and detentions in post-coup Myanmar.
The junta government has resumed international pariah status, although it retains strong links with China and Russia, both of which have supplied arms to its military.
The pardoning of Suu Kyi on five counts came a day after the military regime postponed an election it had promised to stage in August.
It was widely forecast to be a sham in any case, with the National League for Democracy one of 40 parties dissolved this year after it refused to re-register under a junta-imposed electoral law.
The election was put on hold as junta leader General Min Aung Hlaing, in a meeting on Monday with the army-backed National Defence and Security Council, extended a state of emergency by six more months.
The military cited ongoing violence as a reason to postpone the vote.
“While holding an election, in order to have an election that is free and fair and also to be able to vote without any fear, necessary security arrangements are still needed and so the period for the state of emergency is required to extend,” said the junta statement read on state TV.
– with Reuters, AP
#Aung #San #Suu #Kyi #receives #pardon #Myanmar #junta
