The US prosecutor’s office accuses two Myanmar citizens of planning an assassination attempt on their country’s ambassador to the UN. As senior investigators announced on Friday, the two men wanted to force the pro-democratic diplomat Kyaw Moe Tun to resign – and murder him if he refused. The two suspects, aged 28 and 20, were arrested.
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According to court documents, the US authorities received a notice of the assassination plans a few days ago. The law enforcement authorities then acted quickly to prevent the attack, said the FBI representative, Jacqueline Maguire.
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It was unclear whether the two men were connected to the military junta in Myanmar. In the Southeast Asian country, the army seized power in a coup in February. The de facto Prime Minister Aung San Suu Kyi has been arrested.
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The Myanmar ambassador to the United Nations headquarters in New York, Kyaw Moe Tun, supports the democracy movement in his country and has positioned himself against the military junta. He has resisted the military rulers’ invitation to resign. According to investigators, the assassination attempt on Kyaw Moe Tun was planned in Westchester County north of New York, where the diplomat lives.
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Only recently, the military junta in Myanmar extended the state of emergency imposed after the coup by one and a half years until August 2023. After the coup, there had been mass protests in Myanmar for weeks, against which the security forces cracked down on. According to activists, more than 900 people were killed.
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