Australian Sean Turnell ‘tried to flee Myanmar with secret state financial information’, junta leader Min Aung Hlaing says
AMANDA HODGE - MARCH 9, 2021
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Sean Turnell, the Australian economics professor detained in Myanmar, has been accused by junta leader Min Aung Hlaing of trying to flee the country with “secret state financial information”, just one day after Australia suspended its military aid program with Myanmar amid escalating security crackdowns against protesters.
The Sydney professor and long-term economic adviser to deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi was detained in Yangon on February 6 — five days after the coup that toppled her government — while he was putting the finishing touches on a sweeping economic plan aimed at lifting Myanmar out of its COVID-19-induced slump.
“An attempt to flee the country by the former government’s foreign economic adviser, Sean Turnell, was stopped in time and secret state financial information was found through him. Union-level ministers are taking legal actions in relation to that issue,” state-owned MRTV quoted Senior General Min Aung Hlaing as saying.
Australia has called repeatedly for the junta to free Professor Turnell but the new accusations bode poorly for his swift release.
The federal government had resisted initial calls to halt its military assistance program, worth $360,000 in 2020-21, repeatedly insisting that its aid to Myanmar was under review.
But Foreign Minister Marise Payne’s Sunday night announcement that Australia would suspend that program and redirect development aid through non-government organisations in response to the use of lethal force against civilian protesters suggests any talks between Australia and Myanmar aimed at securing his release had broken down.
At least two more people were killed by security forces on Monday and several more wounded as tens of thousands of people participated in a nationwide strike called by some of the country’s biggest trade unions to force the generals to the negotiating table.
Witnesses in the northern town of Myitkyina said the two men had been shot in the head.
Some 18 unions, which include those covering construction, agriculture and manufacturing sectors, urged all workers in Myanmar to down tools to maintain the momentum of the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) aimed at reversing the February 1 coup which toppled the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
“To continue economic and business activities as usual … will only benefit the military as they repress the energy of the Myanmar people,” the group said in a joint statement.
“The time to take action in defence of our democracy is now.”
The mass movement has already crippled the banking sector, shuttered hospitals, brought sections of the country’s rail networks to a halt and hollowed out government departments.
From Monday the junta has said any civil servant who continues to strike faces immediate dismissal.
Late on Sunday security forces began occupying major hospitals and universities in Yangon and Mandalay to enforce the new edict.
That did little to dissuade the crowds which included many women answering the call to join the so-called Htamain (sarong) movement by hanging the traditional garment on clothes lines across streets, or tying them to poles to unnerve soldiers who are said to believe that touching or walking underneath one can sap their potency.
Medical workers were among the first to instigate civil disobedience against the coup, which has seen close to 60 protesters killed by security forces and close to 2000 people detained, including Aung San Suu Kyi herself, and Professor Turnell.
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