Boris Johnson has condemned a military coup in Myanmar.
The Prime Minister criticised the “unlawful imprisonment of civilians” after its leader Aung San Suu Kyi was reportedly detained.
An announcement on military-controlled Myawaddy TV on the morning the country’s new Parliament session was to begin, said there will instead be a new election at the end of a one-year state of emergency.
Mr Johnson tweeted: “I condemn the coup and unlawful imprisonment of civilians, including Aung San Suu Kyi, in Myanmar.
“The vote of the people must be respected and civilian leaders released.”
READ MORE: UK Government must pursue justice in Myanmar
Adding his voice to the condemnation, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab tweeted: “The UK condemns the state of emergency in Myanmar and the unlawful detention of figures in the Civilian Government and civil society by the military.
“The democratically expressed wishes of the people of Myanmar must be respected, and the National Assembly peacefully re-convened.”
Social care minister Helen Whately said the Government was monitoring the situation closely.
She told Sky News: “It is clearly an extremely worrying situation in Myanmar. We are monitoring the situation closely.
“We are very concerned about it. We clearly support democracy, support free and fair elections.”
Aung San Suu Kyi’s political party the National League for Democracy has urged the people of Myanmar to oppose the coup, saying the military’s actions were unjustified and went against the constitution and the will of voters.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel