Myanmar's Suu Kyi charged, can be held until Feb 15
Yangon (Myanmar), Feb 3: Police in Myanmar have charged deposed national leader Aung San Suu Kyi with having several illegally imported walkie-talkies in her home, legally allowing her to be held until Feb. 15, members of her party said Wednesday.
Suu Kyi was detained Monday along with other senior politicians when the military staged a coup the day the newly elected Parliament was supposed to open its session. Party officials say she has not been moved from her residence, where she was being held under house arrest.
The charges against Suu Kyi appear to carry a maximum sentence of two years in prison. The charge sheets indicate the unregistered walkie-talkies were for use by Suu Kyi's bodyguards.
National League for Democracy spokesman Kyi Toe confirmed the charge on his Facebook page. He also said the country's ousted president, Win Myint, was charged with violating natural disaster management law. An NLD lawmaker, Phyo Zayar Thaw, also confirmed the charges.
Police and court officials in the capital Naypyitaw could not immediately be contacted.
The coup was a dramatic backslide for Myanmar, which had been making progress toward democracy, and highlighted the extent to which the generals have ultimately maintained control in in the Southeast Asian country.
The takeover also marked a shocking fall from power for Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who had lived under house arrest for years as she tried to push her country toward democracy and then became its de facto leader after her party won elections in 2015.
Suu Kyi had been a fierce critic of the army during her years in detention. But after her shift from democracy icon to politician, she worked with the generals and even defended their crackdown on Rohingya Muslims, damaging her international reputation.
The military has announced it will hold power under a state of emergency for a year, and then hold elections whose winner will take over government.
Suu Kyi's party has called for non-violent resistance to the military takeover, and on Tuesday night, scores of people in Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, honked car horns and banged on pots and pans in a noise protest called by activists. They included shouts wishing Suu Kyi good health and calling for freedom.
Supporters of the military have also staged demonstrations, attracting as many as 3,000 people to a Tuesday rally.
While in power, Myanmar's new leader said the military government plans to investigate alleged fraud in last year's elections. Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing announced the moves Tuesday at the first meeting of his new government in the capital, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.
The military has said one of its reasons for ousting the elected civilian government was because it failed to properly investigate its allegations of electoral irregularities. The state Union Election Commission has said there were no significant problems with the vote.
In the November 2020 election, Suu Kyi's party captured 396 out of 476 seats contested in the lower and upper houses of Parliament. The main opposition party, the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, won only 33 seats.
The military, known as the Tatmadaw, is automatically allocated 25 per cent of the seats in the combined houses under the 2008 Constitution that was drafted under a previous military government.
The state newspaper reported that Min Aung Hlaing told Cabinet members that a new Union Election Commission, with what he described as independent and unbiased personnel, "would examine the voting data to find correct results, and actions would be taken accordingly in the process." He said voter lists would be scrutinized against family household registrations.
Min Aung Hlaing also said that COVID-19 containment measures taken by Suu Kyi's government would be continued.
Myanmar has confirmed more than 140,600 cases including some 3,100 deaths. Its health care infrastructure is one of the weakest in Asia, according to U.N. surveys.
A statement issued Wednesday in the name of the executive members of Suu Kyi's party said that authorities began raiding the party's offices in Mandalay and other states and regions on Tuesday and seized documents and laptop computers.
The statement on the Facebook page of party spokesman Kyi Toe said locks were broken at several offices. It denounced the raids as illegal and demanded that they stop.
The takeover presents a test for the international community. U.S. President Joe Biden called the military's actions "a direct assault on the country's transition to democracy and the rule of law" and threatened new sanctions.
The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting Tuesday but took no action.
The foreign ministers of the Group of 7 leading industrial nations on Wednesday issued a statement calling for Suu Kyi and others to be released, the state of emergency to be scrapped and power restored to the democratically elected government.
It also expressed concern about restrictions on information, an apparent reference to cuts to phone and internet service on Monday.
"We stand with the people of Myanmar who want to see a democratic future," it said. The group comprises the United States. Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom, along with the European Union.
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Unemployed class 10 passouts in Bengal to get Rs 1,500 allowance from March 7: Mamata
Kolkata (PTI): Ahead of the assembly polls, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that from Saturday unemployed young job seekers, having passed secondary examination (class 10), will receive Rs 1,500 allowance every month to help them move towards a self-reliant future.
The TMC supremo made this announcement - on the eve of International Women’s Day on March 8 - during her speech at the sit-in against large-scale deletion of names of voters by the Election Commission during Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral roll exercise.
She said young men and women - aged 21–40 years - who have passed the secondary exams - will receive Rs 1,500 per month from March 7. Bannerjee said while the assistance was originally scheduled to begin in April, it will now start immediately.
"In the case of Yuva Sathi, all those who are still studying and are not beneficiaries of any schemes other than scholarships will receive the amount. We had earlier stated that the money would be given on April 1. But since tomorrow is International Women's Day, as a gift, we have changed the payment date from April 1 to today (March 7)," she said.
All those aged between 21 and 40 years, numbering around 1 crore people, have applied for this scheme, she said, pointing out these are people who are not beneficiaries of any other schemes except scholarships.
Claiming that her government has generated employment opportunities to a great extent, Banerjee said, "The unemployment rate in Bengal has decreased by 40 per cent. We have provided skill training to at least 40 lakh people, out of which around 10 lakh are already employed.
"This has also happened because we have linked the websites of industrialists with those who have received skill training through Utkarsha Bangla. If migrant workers are interested, they will also be given opportunities. Recently, I heard that around 10,000 people are being trained in the jute industry, and they will also be absorbed into jobs," she said.
The CM said the state is giving Rs 10,000 to farmers every month.
"Even those with just one cottah of land used to receive Rs 4,000 earlier. Now we have also announced Rs 4,000 for landless farmers," she said.
Banerjee said in Bengal, six economic corridors are being constructed to connect the entire state.
"Apart from that, two power plants of 1,600 megawatts (800 megawatts each) are being built in Salboni. We are also number one in IT. More people are employed here than in Bengaluru. Around 200 new companies have also come here.
"Those who defame the state should know that we are number one in small and medium-scale industries. Around 1.5 crore people work in small-scale industries. Units from across the country have come here. In Bengal's leather hub in Bantala, at least 7.5 lakh people work there. Our self-help group women are doing really well. We have created around 12 lakh self-help groups," she said.
Banerjee said around one lakh people will be employed in the large coal reserve in Deucha Pachami in Birbhum district and for the next 100 years, there will be no power cuts in the state.
Bengal's GSDP is the highest even after "repaying Rs 6 lakh crore of debt and paying interest on it and despite Rs 2 lakh crore of central funds still pending," the CM said.
"From GSDP to revenue generation, we are the highest," she claimed.
