LONDON – “I’m not going back to my country. Do you want me to be killed?” The ambassador left outside the door looks like the diplomat again: gray suit, flawless hairdo, clearly fresh from the shower. He needed it after a night spent sleeping in the car in front of his embassy: someone must have offered him hospitality, or at least given him a bath and a change of clothes. The address, 19th Charles Street, in the Mayfair neighborhood, couldn’t be more prestigious, a stone’s throw from the Nobu restaurant and the Dorchester hotel. But for two days Kyaw Zwar Minn, official representative of Myanmar in the United Kingdom, has no longer been able to enter: the military attaché threw him out, putting Deputy Ambassador Chit Win in his place, with a minigolpe following the one orchestrated in February by the junta of the generals. His fault: asking for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Prize winner and de facto leader of Myanmar, who has since been under house arrest.
A hundred demonstrators are stationed in front of the diplomatic headquarters to protest against the coup. And now also to show solidarity with the ambassador, who speaks to the press, including Republic, before going to the Foreign Office.
London, the ambassador of Myanmar “evicted” from his office: “Go back to his homeland? Do you want them to kill me?”
What happened, ambassador?
“They shut me out.”
Because?
“It’s kind of a coup. They occupied my embassy. Two months ago the military made a coup in Myanmar and now they have done it again in central London. They threatened the embassy staff with severe punishment if they don’t continue. to obey the military attaché “.
British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab expressed support: did you speak to him?
“I am grateful and will talk to him soon.”
What are you asking?
“This building is up to me. I need to go into it.”
The military junta accuses her of treason of the homeland.
“My statements do not constitute any betrayal. I have tried to maintain a balanced attitude. I work for my country”.
Do you feel you are still the ambassador?
“Of course” (in reality his government has informed the British Foreign Office that he has been replaced by the deputy, ed.).
Did he really sleep in the car last night?
“Unfortunately”.
And do you plan to sleep in it again tonight?
“We will see how the situation evolves”.
But what do you think Boris Johnson’s government should do?
“Kick them out. Bring out those who kicked me out.”
Will he seek political asylum from the UK?
“I don’t know, I haven’t decided yet.”
Are you worried about your family members?
“Fortunately some of them are safe. The others, I don’t know.”
What message does it have for the world?
“I only ask for help for my country”.
She was also a soldier before embarking on a diplomatic career.
“Yes, for 30 years, I resigned with the rank of colonel.”
So you know the junta men who carried out the coup?
“I know some of them.”
Will he return to Myanmar?
“Do you want me to be killed?”
.