Top Suu Kyi aide arrested as protests grow against Myanmar coup

The arrest of Win Htein, considered Suu Kyi‘s right-hand man, came after the streets of Myanmar‘s biggest city filled for a third night with people banging pots and honking car horns in opposition to Monday’s coup.

On Friday dozens of teachers at Yangon’s Dagon University staged a rally where displayed a three-finger salute borrowed from Hong Kong and Thailand’s democracy movements, and sang a popular revolution song.

The military detained de facto leader Suu Kyi and president Win Myint early Monday, ending the country’s 10-year dalliance with democracy that had followed decades of oppressive junta rule.

Win Htein, a veteran of Suu Kyi’s National League of Democracy (NLD), was arrested at his daughter’s house, said Kyi Toe, a party press officer.

The 79-year-old NLD stalwart has spent long stretches in and out for detention for campaigning against military rule.

Win Htein told the Myanmar-language service of Britain’s BBC radio in a call early Friday that he was being detained for sedition, which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

“They don’t like what I’ve been talking about. They are afraid of what I’m saying,” he told the BBC.

Prior to his arrest, Win Htein told local media that the military putsch was “not wise” and that its leaders had taken the country “in the wrong direction”.

“They are seeking to take us back to zero by destroying our government,” he told Frontier Myanmar in the coup’s aftermath, urging the public to “oppose [the coup] as much as they can”…..read more