Lawmakers in Myanmar say they are under house arrest

Lawmakers in Myanmar say they have been placed under house arrest by military leaders after a coup was staged in the country earlier this week. 

“We had to stay awake and be alert,” one of the lawmakers told The Associated Press. About 400 lawmakers are being watched by armed guards at a housing complex in Naypyitaw, the AP’s source said. 

The country’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and other ruling party officials were arrested during overnight raids as military leaders announced on state television they had taken control of the government for the next year. 

Military leaders in Myanmar have grown increasingly angry with Suu Kyi in recent years, arguing elections are not being carried out fairly and criticizing her for not heeding their claims. 

President Biden on Monday condemned the armed coup, threatening sanctions if military leaders do not return power to Suu Kyi. 

“The military’s seizure of power in Burma, the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and other civilian officials, and the declaration of a national state of emergency are a direct assault on the country’s transition to democracy and the rule of law,” Biden said in a statement. “In a democracy, force should never seek to overrule the will of the people or attempt to erase the outcome of a credible election.” 

The mass detention of lawmakers came as members met for the new parliamentary session. 

“The commander-in-chief seizing the power of the nation is against the constitution and it also neglects the sovereign power of people,” Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party said in a statement on one of its Facebook pages, the AP reported.