DM Monitoring
YANGON: Myanmar police arrested another key aide of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and media said at least 30 people had been detained over pot-banging protests against a military coup as shows of anger gathered pace on Friday.
International pressure on the junta was also growing with the U.N. Security Council calling for the release of Suu Kyi and other leaders and U.S. President Joe Biden considering sanctions on the ruling generals.
The latest high-profile detainee was 79-year-old Win Htein, a stalwart of Suu Kyi who was repeatedly imprisoned during their decades of struggling against previous juntas that led to the unsteady transition to democracy that began in 2011.
“We have been treated badly continuously for a long time,” he told Reuters by telephone as he was being taken away by police. “I have never been scared of them because I have done nothing wrong my entire life.”
In Myanmar’s second city of Mandalay, 30 people were arrested over pot-banging protests which have taken place for the last three nights against Monday’s coup, media reported.