Citizens caught unawares as Myanmar military takes over

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA (AA) – A pre-dawn military coup in Myanmar on Monday, just hours before the first session of the country's parliament, caught almost all the citizens unawares.

The military, after days of escalating tension with the civilian government, declared a one-year state of emergency by detaining Myanmar President Win Myint, State Councilor Aung San Suu Kyi, and other members of the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

The military said it intervened due to “election fraud” in the Nov. 8 elections, which resulted in a landslide victory for the ruling NLD.

Kyaw Ye Lynn, who reports from Yangon for Anadolu Agency on a freelance basis, moved around the city and asked for the reaction of the citizens.

While soldiers were on the streets, communication systems including the internet were temporarily blocked.

"I have been moving around the city since early morning, talking to taxi drivers and regular people. A lot of them were not aware of the military coup. They were on their wheels to work," Lynn said in a voice note sent to the Ankara desk of Anadolu Agency.

“They didn't know what is going on. They were waiting outside shops, malls… waiting for their employers to come and open the markets,” he added.

“But the bosses didn’t show up because of the communication blackout, which was cut at 5 a.m. [GMT 2230 Sunday] until around 12 p.m. [GMT 0530 Monday]."

He said people were trying to find out about the “possible military coup.”

“The first thing they noticed was the military statement about the coup,” he said. “The second thing was a statement on the official page of the NLD."

Win Htein, the ruling party's patron, has asked people to take to the streets and confront non-violently. Fake versions of the statement doing the rounds on social media, however, have created some confusion.

“People believe the statement could be fabricated, an attempt by the military to incite riots, confrontation,” Lynn said.

The reporter shared that a pro-military rally was also organized to "celebrate the coup."

Explaining the power struggle in the country of 55 million people, he said: "The military has created a situation in which pro-military and pro-NLD groups confront each other. But the NLD leadership has been consistently calling on people not to respond in a violent manner... but [act] according to the law."