Myanmar’s military has detained the country’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the country’s president in an apparent coup, a spokesman for her ruling party said Monday.
The dramatic escalation came after weeks of rising tensions between the military, which ruled the country for nearly five decades, and the civilian government over allegations of fraud in November’s elections.
The military last week refused to rule out seizing power to settle its claims of irregularities in the polls, which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party won easily.
Myo Nyunt, the spokesman for the NLD, said Suu Kyi, along with President Win Myint, had been “detained” in the capital Naypyidaw.
“We heard they were taken by the military,” he told AFP, adding that he was extremely worried about the pair.
“With the situation we see happening now, we have to assume that the military is staging a coup.”
Elsewhere, the chief minister of Karen state and several other regional ministers were also held,…