YANGON, Myanmar—Myanmar’s transition to democracy, which had stalled in recent years, is in reverse after the military staged a coup and detained civilian leaders, setting the country on a tense and uncertain path and posing a challenge for the
Biden
administration.
An army-backed television channel, which carried the announcement of the coup Monday morning, played songs through the day about the military’s bravery and patriotism. Activists and journalists in the country feared they might also be arrested after civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other senior officials were detained in a predawn raid. Residents, who lived under military rule until the shift toward democracy during the past decade, rushed to buy groceries and withdraw cash from ATMs.
Diplomats said the situation was tense and it was hard to predict what turn events would take. There’s “almost a surreal sense, are we really going back to something which we thought we had left…