YANGON: Myanmar’s ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi faces fresh corruption charges from the ruling junta that her lawyer said Thursday were “groundless” but could ensure she would never be able to return to politics.
The coup on February 1 that ousted Suu Kyi’s government has brought hundreds of thousands onto the streets to confront the generals, who have responded with a brutal crackdown that has left at least 200 dead.
The new military regime has already issued several criminal charges against the Nobel laureate since she was detained alongside top political allies, including owning unlicensed walkie-talkies and violating coronavirus restrictions.
On Wednesday night, military broadcaster Myawady aired a video of a Myanmar businessman confessing to giving her a total of $550,000 over several years.
Maung Weik said he had donated money to senior government figures for the good of his business.
“Aung San Suu Kyi committed corruption and (authorities) are preparing to charge her according to anti-corruption law,” an announcer said during the broadcast.
This is not the first time corruption allegations have been lodged against her.
Last week a junta spokesman said a now-detained chief minister had admitted to giving her $600,000 and more than 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of gold bars.
“Those accusations are groundless,” Suu Kyi’s lawyer Khin Maung Zaw said.
“Aung San Suu Kyi may have her defects... but bribery and corruption are not her traits,” he said, adding that most people in Myanmar will not believe the allegations.
However, a conviction for bribery in a case against her “personal character” could see Suu Kyi “prohibited from taking part in political activities,” Zaw said.
Soldiers and police terrorized several battle-scarred Yangon neighborhoods Wednesday night, as a mobile data blockade combined with an Internet shutdown pushed scared residents further into an information blackout.
“Security forces threatened to shoot” residents if they did not remove the barricades that demonstrators have built across the commercial capital as they battle authorities, according to a doctor from the South Okkalapa township.
They also raided homes and arrested at least 10 people, he said.
In neighboring Thingangyun township, one man said he had heard continuous gunfire for 30 minutes before midnight, adding he had put cotton buds in the ears of his two sons so they could fall asleep.
Even going out to buy food has become a terrifying ordeal he said, with residents forced to move quickly through the streets to avoid encountering patrols of trigger-happy security forces.
“It makes me sad and furious as well... it’s like all our dreams (of democracy) have vanished,” he said.
But “our hatred (of a military regime) is much more than our fear.”
Protesters were back on the streets Thursday, with some in Yangon testing a giant slingshot to shoot projectiles.
Sunday was the bloodiest day since the coup, with the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) monitoring group recording more than 70 deaths across the country.
The bulk of the death toll came in Yangon’s Hlaing Tharyar – an impoverished garment-producing township mostly housing Chinese-owned factories – with the junta later imposing martial law on the area.
Five other townships were also placed under martial law by Monday, which effectively shunts nearly 2 million of Yangon’s sprawling population under the direct control of military commanders.
Any arrests made there will be tried in military courts.
Despite mass international condemnation the junta continues to rack up an increasing toll, with AAPP reporting Thursday that more than 210 people have been killed so far.
The junta has justified the coup by claiming electoral fraud in elections last November that were won by Suu Kyi’s party in a landslide.
Myanmar’s ousted leader Suu Kyi faces new corruption charges from junta
https://arab.news/ytvst
Myanmar’s ousted leader Suu Kyi faces new corruption charges from junta
- New military regime has already issued several criminal charges against the Nobel laureate
- This is not the first time corruption allegations have been lodged against her
Trump taking steps toward installing a Columbus statue near the White House
- Trump endorses a traditional view of Columbus as leader of the 1492 mission that marked the unofficial beginning of European colonization in the Americas
ANNAPOLIS, Maryland: President Donald Trump is taking steps toward installing near the White House a replica of a statue of famed explorer Christopher Columbus that had been tossed into Baltimore’s harbor during his first term amid protests against institutional racism.
John Pica, a Maryland lobbyist and president of the Italian American Organizations United, said his group owns the statue and agreed to loan it to the federal government for placement at or near the White House.
Pica told The Associated Press in an interview that he was contacted about the statue around Columbus Day last year by an intermediary who said the White House was looking for a statue of the explorer. Pica says his organization took a straw vote and unanimously decided to send the statue to the White House. They signed the loan agreement Wednesday.
Asked if he was optimistic the statue would make it to the White House, Pica said, “Cautiously optimistic, yes.” The exact timing for any planned installation was unclear, he said, though he added, “possibly within two weeks.”
Maryland state Delaware Nino Mangione, a Republican who has worked with the Italian American group to find the statue a new home after it was pulled from the harbor, also confirmed the plans for the statue, which were first reported earlier Wednesday by The Washington Post.
The White House declined to comment to the AP on plans for the statue but reaffirmed Trump’s affinity for Columbus, whose legacy has shifted as historians and educators amplify how white European figures and their descendants treated Native Americans and enslaved Africans to develop the New World.
“In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero,” said Trump spokesman David Ingle. “And he will continue to be honored as such by President Trump.”
Trump wants to put his own stamp on American history ahead of big anniversary celebration
For Pica and his group, the statue’s Washington placement would celebrate a famous Italian who holds iconic status among Italian Americans. For Trump, it would be another move to reshape the telling of US history as the nation marks the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Trump endorses a traditional view of Columbus as leader of the 1492 mission that marked the unofficial beginning of European colonization in the Americas and the development of the modern economic and political order. But in recent years, Columbus also been recognized as a primary example of Western Europe’s conquest of the New World, its resources and its native people.
The statue now headed to Washington is a replica of one toppled by protesters on July 4, 2020, and thrown into Baltimore’s Inner Harbor after anger boiled over following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police. It was one of many statues of Columbus that were vandalized around the same time, with protesters saying the Italian explorer was responsible for the genocide and exploitation of native peoples in the Americas.
“I was there when we got it out of the harbor,” Mangione said, adding that artist Will Hemsley used parts of the old statue, first unveiled during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, “to build and restore a beautiful, brand new statue.”
In recent years, some individuals, institutions and government entities have displaced Columbus Day with recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day. President Joe Biden in 2021 became the first US president to mark Indigenous Peoples Day with a proclamation.
The statue may not be permanent
Pica emphasized that his group is lending the statue and would reclaim it if a future administration wanted it taken down.
Trump dismisses the shift on Columbus as “left-wing arsonists” bending history and twisting Americans’ collective memory. “I’m bringing Columbus Day back from the ashes.,” he declared last April. Echoing his 2024 campaign rhetoric, he complained that “Democrats did everything possible to destroy Christopher Columbus, his reputation, and all of the Italians that love him so much.”
Trump issued a Columbus Day proclamation last October and ignored Indigenous Peoples Day. He praised Columbus as “the original American hero, a giant of Western civilization, and one of the most gallant and visionary men to ever walk the face of the earth.”
That tribute reflected Trump’s broader take on history. Last spring, he signed an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” which bemoaned “a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history” in a way that misrepresents the US “as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed.”
Since the order, the administration has demanded a comprehensive review of exhibits across all Smithsonian museums and pushed Executive Branch agencies and state and local entities — especially colleges, universities and schools — that receive federal funding to roll back their diversity initiatives.
