As raucous street protests and criticism of the coup on social media were met with arrests Thursday in cities across Myanmar, in New York the U.N. Security Council expressed “deep concern” at the declaration of the junta’s state of emergency and the “arbitrary detention” of State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint and others. “The members of the Security Council expressed concern at the restrictions on civil society, journalists and media workers,” it said a press statement that fell short of condemning the putsch after days of deliberations.
Myanmar’s military seized power Monday, hours before parliament was scheduled to convene new sessions and detained all key politicians, declaring a state of emergency to address accusations of election fraud following the November 2020 vote that was swept by the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD).
