Israel has condemned Monday’s military coup d’etat in the southeastern Asian nation of Myanmar and called for the release of the country’s head of state and other top government officials.
“Israel is following the situation in Myanmar with concern and calls for the release of the Head of State Aung San Suu Kyi as well as of the leaders and public figures who have been arrested,” the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement released Tuesday.
“Israel continues to support the Myanmar people and the process of democratization and calls for the preservation of peace, quiet and the rule of law in the country and for the prevention of violence,” the statement said.
Israel and Myanmar have had a close, decades-long relationship, which dates back to the formal start of ties in 1953. Myanmar was the first country in Southeast Asia to recognize Israel as an independent state.
Israel’s Foreign Affairs Ministry told JewishPress.com on Monday night that it is in contact with the Israeli Embassy in Yangon, and that its staff and their families and Israeli citizens in Mayanmar, are “all fine.”
Local citizens are, for the moment, safe but not necessary feeling “fine,” however, and the vast majority want to see the return of their democratically-elected government.
At an emergency meeting the UN Security Council held Tuesday, Myanmar’s UN envoy Christine Schraner Burgener urged the world body to “collectively send a clear signal in support of democracy in Myanmar.”
But as happens far too often, the UN Security Council took no action.
Biden Threatens to Reinstate Sanctions Against Myanmar Over Military Coup D’Etat
US President Joe Biden said in a statement from the White House, however, that the coup d’etat represents “a direct assault on the country’s transition to democracy and the rule of law” and warned it could result in the reimposition of sanctions on Myanmar by the US.
The country’s head of state, Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, won a landslide victory in 2015 along with her party to establish the nation’s first democratically elected civilian government in half a century, after spending 15 years under house arrest in the struggle to bring democracy to her nation.
Her people call her the nation’s “Mother.”
On Monday, the country’s armed forces overthrew her democratically elected government, arrested Suu Kyi and transferred power to Myanmar Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.
An announcement read Monday on Myawaddy TV, owned by the military said Hlaing would be in charge of the country for one year.
A new cabinet comprised of current and former generals and advisers from a previous government headed by former General Thein Sein held its first meeting Tuesday.
That night, at 8 pm local time, the people of Myanmar organized in a civil disobedience action to “bang ironware” and thereby express their anger and their defiance against the ruling military that had overthrown their democratically elected government.
One of those who stood outside to bang his pans posted this tweet: “Never been a neighborhood person, but tonight is the night. Everyone in the street came out banging everything they got, the whole noise flood. Just like the shield banging for a unite battlecry, shouting out prayer for the beloved leader.
“For every peeps and media, if you wanna share pics for use it feel free to. As a photographer, that’s all I could do for now. Love, Peace & Respect”