Turmoil in Myanmar’s military-backed ruling party as leaders are deposed
Myanmar security forces have surrounded the headquarters of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development party in the country’s capital, Naypyidaw, and senior regime figures have been removed from their posts, as tensions mount ahead of elections in November.
Sources within the headquarters of the USDP – which is effectively a political extension of the military – said on 13 August that Shwe Mann, party chairman and Speaker of the parliament, had been deposed and was under police guard. His closeness to opposition leader and democracy figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi is believed to have soured his relationship with military leaders in Myanmar.
“Police entered the party compound last night. Since then no one was allowed in or out,” Toe Naing Mann, Shwe Mann’s son, told Agence France-Presse on the morning of 13 August. “So-called guards” were also outside his father’s residence in the capital, he said.
Several trucks of soldiers and police officers arrived at the compound at around 10pm on 12 August, sources said. “We have not been allowed to move around since late yesterday,” said one party member.
