Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders of her ruling National League for Democracy party were detained in a predawn operation on Monday, the party’s spokesman said, in an apparent military takeover of the Southeast Asian nation’s democratically elected government.
The raids came hours before a new session of parliament was scheduled to open and members who won the November elections were set to take their seats. Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won those elections in a landslide, capturing 396 out of 476 seats. It was Myanmar’s second democratic election since the country’s fragile transition from military rule to democracy.
Suu Kyi, Myanmar President Win Myint and all chief ministers from their party, representing over a dozen states and regions in the country, were taken at gunpoint.
