Myanmar's Suu Kyi: Prisoner Of Generals

Myanmar's Suu Kyi: Prisoner of generals

After more than a year under house arrest ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been transferred to solitary confinement in prison, the latest blow struck by the military against the country's democracy figurehead

Yangon, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Jun, 2022 ) :After more than a year under house arrest ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been transferred to solitary confinement in prison, the latest blow struck by the military against the country's democracy figurehead.

The Nobel laureate, 77, has been held since a coup ousted her government on February 1 last year, ending a brief democratic interlude for the country and sparking huge protests.

Months before, her National League for Democracy (NLD) swept nationwide elections and she had been preparing to begin another five-year term as the nation's de facto leader.

The daughter of an independence hero, Suu Kyi spent nearly two decades enduring long stretches of house arrest under a former military regime.

On Thursday, junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun said Suu Kyi had been moved from house arrest in the military-built capital Naypyidaw to "solitary confinement in prison".

A junta court has already convicted her of corruption, incitement against the military, breaching Covid-19 rules and breaking a telecommunications law and sentenced her to 11 years in jail.

She is still battling a slew of other charges, including a new trial for allegedly influencing electoral officials during the 2020 polls.

While Suu Kyi remains immensely popular in Myanmar, her legacy abroad was deeply tarnished by her government's handling of the Rohingya crisis.

There was global revulsion at a 2017 army crackdown that saw roughly 750,000 members of the stateless Rohingya minority flee burning villages to neighbouring Bangladesh.

And for many fighting for democracy in Myanmar, the revolution must now go further than the movement Suu Kyi led decades ago and permanently root out military dominance of the country's politics and economy.