Myanmar military
Nine killed in Myanmar as junta accuses Suu Kyi of taking illegal payments
More pressure expected to mount on the junta as nine protesters are killed in Myanmar amid global condemnations since the generals took over power
Myanmar's junta deployed extra troops around the country and choked the internet on Monday as it intensified a crackdown on anti-coup protests.
Speaking before the Human Rights Council in Geneva, the UN's deputy rights chief Nada al-Nashif expressed concern after Washington announced sanctions on the generals behind last week's coup in Myanmar.
Mass amnesties to empty the country's overcrowded prison system are common on significant local dates. Friday was a public holiday in Myanmar.
Myanmar was plunged back into direct military rule when soldiers detained Aung San Suu Kyi and other civilian leaders in a series of dawn raids on Monday, ending the country's brief experiment with democracy.
Suu Kyi, Myanmar's de facto leader, was detained by the military in the early hours of Monday along with President Win Myint.
The army issued a statement hours after the army took power, detaining de facto leader Suu Kyi, declaring a state of emergency, and appointing ex-general Myint Swe as acting president.
The intervention came after weeks of rising tensions between the military, which ruled the country for nearly five decades, and the civilian government over allegations of fraud in November's elections.
Ethnic armed rebel groups have for decades fought against the military -- and often between themselves -- for land and resources in Myanmar's east.
The move comes as both civilian and military leaders face growing international pressure over an army crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in 2017.
The move came hours after United Nations investigators said the army carried out mass killings and gang rapes of Muslim Rohingya with “genocidal intent.”
Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, are charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
The killings took place during a military crackdown that United Nations agencies say led to more than 700,000 Rohingya fleeing to neighbouring Bangladesh last year.
Red Cross President Peter Maurer said he did not believe returns should start any time soon based on what he saw during his visit.
The pre-trial hearings, which began in January, finished last month. The two reporters have been denied bail and have been held in Yangon’s Insein jail since being arrested in December.
Amnesty said these people should face justice “for their command responsibility, their direct responsibility, or both.”
At the time of their arrest in December, the reporters had been working on an investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys in a village in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
The court in Yangon has been holding hearings since January to decide whether the pair will be charged under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act.
The Rohingya homes in Inn Din were burned to the ground, and is now scattered across the world’s largest refugee camp in Bangladesh.