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UN Security Council calls for release of detainees in coup-hit Myanmar

This file photo shows the UN Security Council in session.

The United Nations Security Council has expressed “deep concern” by the recent military coup in Myanmar, calling for the “release of all detainees”, including the Southeast Asian country’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

A junta, led by Myanmar’s Commander in Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, took control of the country on early Monday after detaining Suu Kyi, President Win Myint as well as other senior figures from the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party through a coup, which has drawn worldwide condemnation.

The junta, which has declared a one-year emergency across the country, claims that it seized power after it found widespread fraud in elections held three months ago that Suu Kyi's NLD won in a landslide.

The Security Council voiced its concern in a statement written by Britain on Thursday, but it no longer denounced the putsch as envisaged in a first draft during an emergency meeting held on Tuesday.  

China has urged all parties in Myanmar to “resolve their differences.”

Later on Monday, the coup leaders announced that the junta had removed 24 ministers and deputies and named 11 replacements in its so-called new administration.

The replacements, according to the announcement, are to be assigned for the portfolios of the finance, health, information, foreign affairs, defense, borders, and interior ministries.

Suu Kyi has already called on the people in Myanmar to reject the coup.

The Southeast Asian country, also known as Burma, was ruled by the armed forces until 2011, when Suu Kyi ended the military rule and introduced her reforms.

Suu Kyi, who won a Nobel Peace Prize 30 years ago, faces international scrutiny for her support for a military crackdown against Rohingya Muslims in the western state of Rakhine.

She defended the military's atrocities against the Rohingya people at the UN’s top court in the Hague in December 2019.


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