i'll dizzier investigations on ministers. it was the fast trial of its kind for my ugandan child soldier dominic on when is accused of recruiting more children to fight as he rose through the ranks of the in famous moods resistance army. now he is about to learn his fate at the international criminal court to maintain. the air the in. a military coup in myanmar is democrat democratically elected leader on sons and she is detained in the army has declared a state of emergency phone and internet services are disrupted in the commercial capital state television is taken off the air.

i'm pretty battle you're watching al-jazeera live from doha with continuing extensive coverage of the call in myanmar also ahead donald trump's office names a new legal team for his impeachment trial in the u.s. senate plus bail hearing in hong kong for jimmy lie the billionaire media tycoon charged with violating the national security. thank you very much for joining us so the military has seized power in myanmar and declared a state of emergency the army detained at the country's democratically elected leader on sons who she and other senior politicians from the ruling party the military says it's in response to alleged fraud in november's election which returned the national league for democracy to power they target and b. has. the military made its move in the early hours of the morning detaining myanmar's democratically elected leader and san suu kyi and other senior figures

from the ruling party cheese n l d government won november's election by a landslide but accusations of electoral fraud led to tension between the civilian government and the military. what my stance is is that i once had the upper hand in the internal military struggle but also had gone back to the chinese arms and said look this is where we think you're going in a chinese government which is not inclined to support him ocracy has said you have that in the political crisis began last tuesday when a military spokesman refused to rule out the possibility of a coup the following day mammals military chief state fears when he said the constitution should be repealed if it was not abided by as tensions reached their peak on saturday the military issued a new statement saying the commander in chief's comments had been misinterpreted and pledged to protect the constitution. but just hours later emboldened

by remus hundreds of protesters gathered in yangon at a pro-military rally where speeches welcomed a clear with the support of the people there is now our legal basis for the military true takeover of our while the military may claim there are certain house in the constitution that allows it to do this that is very much open to interpretation and it's fairly clear that in terms of a constitutional american see that that how large in lies with the president and not with the commander in chief more than a dozen countries including the u.s. and the u.k. have urged me to adhere to democratic norms this military coup will likely lead to more sanctions. the n.l. de has called on the military to accept the will of the people and has asked its supporters to stay calm on the same day a new parliament was due to open in myanmar the fate of the country's democracy is uncertain victoria gates and the al-jazeera. let's get an update on the situation

in myanmar and speak to young on forest ali when we spoke about an hour ago you talked about a more visible military presence on the streets what's the latest right now. yes that's continuing the military vehicles have continued to go there's obviously movement of military personnel happening in young gone as well as reportedly in other cities as well. as i mentioned are full the roads have also been blocked some major roads been blocked the road i'm on seems to flowing traffic flowing reasonably know me buses have also been causing as well as military vehicles so it's not a total shutdown of everything but there's definitely movement happening meanwhile in a battle of the capital where most of this is playing out those still limited communications that but i'm hearing from people who have i mean members who are m.p.'s there with

the family members of m.p.'s here and young go on the m.p.'s and maybe they haven't been able to contact them and i will say hearing. i've also not been able to contact journalist friends of mine in and gone via internet or by phone obviously all the phone lines are down at the moment most of the my phones are on the phones and most of my friends although i have heard my tell which is the military. telecoms operator is still working but i haven't been able to contact you know myself as you say naypyidaw is where this is all playing out that's where the military space us where they've got their biggest base and that's why also the parliament was supposed to be convening today after the elections in november the new parliament in which the nationally for democracy was going to have a majority of the seats that how are people reacting to this given that they have supported. the national need for democracy. i

think there's going to be a huge amount of fear and disappointment from the people who. remain extremely popular and. online me i've seen already a little bit of like fear and outrage but the people who tend to post online or certainly the people that i'm connected with a lot of them a journalist or activists anyway so maybe the kind of people you might expect to voice outrage but i think that generally around the city as well and there's going to be a lot of distress over the situation and we have seen flags flying over the last week or so as we are news of a coup some scrape up so so i think there will be a popular reaction whether that will translate into a people pulling out in the street right is yet to be seen the fear is very real but already yet as you say already that it seems that the military is trying to quell any sort of popular reaction and already making arrests. well yeah

absolutely that some of the people that we have heard or seen who've been arrested i'm not politicians they're not political figures or ministers weeks we have seen obviously political figures and senior and the figures but we're also seeing. activists popular a popular film a coast right. so it's possible that they are also rounding up figures that they see as people who could unite. the people who could who could get a crowd together and and motivate some sort of movement behind them and you know some of them some of these activists were student leaders in 1908 which was a huge popular rising in the last time there was a coup in myanmar and so they're very wary of getting those kind of because people they know are capable of of rising support in the people getting them

to the way fanatic any file in youngstown thank you very much for the moment i will be speaking to you later of course that has been a lot of international reaction as you can imagine to the school in myanmar the united nations secretary general has condemned the detention of on and unsound sochi and other political only this in a statement a spokesman for antonio terry said he just the military leadership to respect the will of the people of myanmar calling the arrests a serious blow to democratic reforms the statement went on to say that all leaders must act in the greater interests of myanmar samak radically form and gauging in meaningful dialogue refraining from violence and fully respecting human rights. phil robertson is a human rights watch division deputy director and he made this plea to me on last military and the international community. myanmar's military should immediately and unconditionally release aung san suu kyi senior government officials and others and lawfully detained the military's actions show utter disdain for the democratic

elections of november and the right of myanmar as people to choose their own government we are especially concerned for the safety and security of activists and other critics of the military who've been taken into custody the military should recognize that all be held accountable for its actions including any mistreatment in custody or excessive use of force we are concerned and we urge concerned governments around the world to speak out forcefully against military actions against their targeted sanctions against those responsible this is our worst nightmare come true what we had was a resoundingly lection victory for the national league for democracy and that in the election it's a clear majority situation where the democratic rule is going to be entrenched for another 5 years and overnight the military just basically torrent the rulebook they're using the 2800 situation was written by the military for the military put through a fraudulent referendum in 2008 and it is

a once again the government at the mercy of a military which never really gave up power this is you know the probably the worst possible outcome we could imagine and now it's time for the international community to put burma back in the freezer they've got to basically be treated as a pariah state we've got to see international sanctions we've got to see the full force of the international community come down on the burmese generals there's no reason for a state of emergency declared this is a manufactured crisis by the burmese military. anybody who claims that there is a real state of emergency to justify this action is frankly on the military side it's it's quite clearly something where you know there's a military coup they're going to try to dress it up in the constitution with that concept. the reaction there of phil robertson from human rights watch in the united states the

state department has issued a statement saying the u.s. opposes any attempt to alter the outcome of recent elections or impedes myanmar's democratic transition and will take action against those responsible if these steps are not reverse we're monitoring the situation closely it says and stand with the people of burma who've already enjoyed so much in their quest for democracy and peace live to correspondent in maryland near washington so patty a reaction there from the state department strong words but what more can we expect from the biden administration on what is it seems say a big 1st foreign policy tests. i think we can expect the by the administration to take quick action on this remember this was joe biden he campaigned for president saying that america needs to reengage the world america to take up its position as leader of the free world i think you'll see this is an opportunity to send a message that he's serious about that and he wants to rally international opinion

we've already heard from the white house they said the president was briefed by his national security adviser and they are warning that sanctions. that they that these people need to be released immediately and if not steps will take action against those responsible the senate foreign relations committee under senator bob menendez went even further saying that they will they will pursue economic sanctions as well as other actions and the senate foreign relations committee draft chairman going on to say these are the same people who committed the genocide in his words of the regime and that they will take necessary actions so i think we're going to see the by the administration even though it is a very late very snowy cold ice swept washington d.c. when usually the government shuts down over whether i think you'll see that by demonstration want to get in front of this they're running want to get in front of the cameras they're going to want to put out whatever sanctions they want to see

put in place because they see this is a time critical situation and also as you mentioned the 1st test of the biden presidency he said america will retake its leadership role in the world and this will be his 1st chance to show how does that lead one do the patty thank you very much for that particle hanging live there from maryland and here now from beijing with katrina you are correspondent jane china to train a horse painting is seen as a strong supporter of the military and jamar how my day view the situation unfolding today. well we're yet to hear any official response from the aging but the certainly watching this very closely it's fair to say that beijing was of a big supporter of the military but they were also they also had quite good ties with aung sun suu cheez government the bottom line for beijing was that myin mar as a whole as a country was important for china it was important for helping to shore up its own

influence its own position in the asia region and china would definitely want to keep things that way they would definitely want miami to continue to be a reliable partner going forward certainly. economically reliant on china china's largest trading partner of my on line it's a 2nd largest source of foreign direct investment and also shares a very long border with my on the 2000 kilometers or so and aung sun suu kyi was aware of that if she did cultivate those economic ties with beijing she signed the china economic corridor with the number of projects there she was a quite enthusiastic participant under china's belt and road initiative also a signatory to the r.c. e.p. the regional comprehensive economic partnership and it was a very neutrally beneficial relationship my are now received billions of dollars worth of much needed investment to fund infrastructure projects and china in return receive much needed natural resources timber oil gas jade but it is true that this

relationship has been quite it hasn't been as good as it once was since aung sun tucci came to power she is more she had been more cognizant of this growing energy china sentiment among them and more people people who are skeptical of this growing chinese influence going chinese business expansion in my own mind she was listening to that and kind of pulling back she was more all open as well to u.s. investment and then there are a number of chinese infrastructure projects that had stalled under her watch and that was very frustrating for china specifically we had for example this huge high . project which was funded to its you know 3600000000 dollars by the chinese which has been stalled due to environmental reasons so china definitely has been trying to really bolster its economic trade with lambing get a move on and some of these projects and it's interesting to know that just 3 weeks

ago one need china's foreign minister was in my and my having talks with aung sun suu kyi signing memorandums and he also signed had talks with my military commander in chief at that time to. thank you for the moment because you knew you in. well let's show you now the moment myanmar found out the government they voted for in a landslide in november had been kicked out of power it was announced by newscaster on a military owned television channel taken up by the will resume. due to refusing to settle voter list fraud failing to take actions not following the request to postpone lower house and upper house parliament sessions there is a need to carry along with the plan according to the 2008 constitution which talks about acts or attempts to take over the sovereignty of the union by wrongful forcible means that can lead to disintegration of national solidarity about the

state of emergency is in effect nationwide and the duration of the state of emergency is set to one year starting from this date the order is announced in line with the 2008 constitution article 417 let's bring in foreign story now another of our correspondents who has reported extensively from myanmar she is joining us from kuala lumpur so we heard the military statements there are not saying why they took this action justifying their action today this was expected somewhat they've been rumors of a coup in the last week or so doesn't really come as a surprise but is there a clear plan forward for the military. the military hasn't really made another hasn't really revealed what it's planning to do in the next step apart from that statement that we heard on military owned t.v. now it's not really a surprise that this coup has been carried out simply because there were hints that

the military had been dropping that you know we know that they were unhappy with the election results of november 202020 where the n l d won by a landslide the military has been hinting that there was electoral fraud even though we haven't seen any evidence of that and now the military has really out has really carried out what it has been hinting it would do to hostage a military coup and take back power but we don't know what the next step is will be do know however that a state of emergency is in place and it will be in place for another year which means the military has very wide powers it could impose a curfew it could and it probably will suspend parliament for the entire duration of emergency and you know it's we really shouldn't be surprised that the military is going to be fully in charge of the country from now how will it be on mars neighbors its immediate neighbors be viewing this situation unfolding once.

i think we will hear condemnation from the regional community from the association of southeast asian nations we've already heard a statement from singapore says saying that it to 6 pressing grave concern about what's happening but the condemnation is certainly not as strong as we would expect from western countries and that's because the association of southeast asian nations have always made it a point in fact as part of the aid to force that they don't interfere with what they deem to be a country's internal affairs so they will issue statements but they will not be full on condemnation they and also don't forget thailand one of the neighboring countries an r.c. and member is or had a military coup several years ago and it is still the military who is if that's effectively in charge of the country so i don't think we will expect a very strong condemnation to come out of our countries we are still as you heard

from katrina we are still waiting for a statement to come out from beijing right at the certainly i don't think we will be expecting very strong words to come out from the region compared to in western nations indeed thank you very much for that florence 3 live for us there in kuala lumpur let's now bring in bridget well she was an honorary research associate at the asia research institute based at the university of nottingham malaysia she joins us from kuala lumpur as well i thank you for being with us brigitte as florence was saying there for days they have been speculations about a military coup in myanmar it's finally happened today let me ask you 1st about your reaction to the military statement about why they're doing this now and whether the people of myanmar will buy this. well i think that the military is trying to codified i could really waters going on a power struggle by individuals within the military to take over power and their concerns as an institution that the election results will trigger government

policies that will weaken the military's power in the system i think everyone in myanmar understands that they're using the law to their advantage and i think that there is widespread anxiety and concern about what is happening not only in not only internationally but also within memory itself because the implications of the coup are not just about who's in power but it has very important implications in terms of covert 19 in the economy and of course ethnic conflict in myanmar i was going to ask you about the implications for the region of course we've had a mass exodus of people from myanmar from rakhine state who've been staying in bangladesh for a number of years now what implications could more instability have for the rest of the region. well i think in terms of the issue of the written into i think that this is a tremendous step back and already

a very serious situation you know there is no is going to be no return of or hinge on when the military is and power that the issues of potential exodus are clearly on the cards and of course even more serious is the fact that the sort of stalemate the peace sort of situation will will actually probably erode and you'll have increased fighting in record time especially by their kind of army and so i think that this is going to have. serious issues that will emerge as a result of the military coming back into power you mentioned the army in rakhine state there of course they have been in conflict with the military do you expect any any more any further tension as a result of what's happened today internally within me and mark. well absolutely it's not just in the right kind state you're going to have seen fighting in other parts of the country and i think in the shan state in the south. korean areas and

those fighting has been escalating and i think that when with the military now in power what happens is that they're the buffer of sort of reaching sort of. some sort of compromise or real are or actually cease fires has been removed and this the chances of this escalating in multiple areas of the country are very real right we were hearing before from our correspondent in beijing and also another from beijing saying that china might welcome the military being back in power. myanma because they've always supported the military at the same time this is all also could be a source of more tension that china would want right now. well i think that china's role in the military is not a simple a support or not support there are large parts of the military that have seen china very very suspicious. in terms of their own involvement with ethnic armed groups and i think the chinese government's relationship with on some suchi had actually

warmed up quite considerably and so i think that there may be a bit more complicated and less partly why we're seeing the statement not emerging from me that one of the most important regional responses will be that of india india has in place has provided a rich promise to provide 1500000 vaccines for covert 1000 and they were right ready provided some and i think if that relationship sours this has very dire and put implications for me on mars access to the next scenes globally and there is a reaction from india to the events in myanmar india saying with no take the developments in myanmar with deep concern india has always been steadfast in its support to the process of democratic transition in myanmar we believe that the rule of law and the democratic process must be upheld when monitoring the situation very closely so we kind of i mean they are saying that the democratic process has to be upheld but where would india which side would india beyond right now. well i think

india is watching it like it might many of the regional countries but i think that they they have by the fact that they've issued a statement there with the with the most of the international community that is looking with grave concern of what is happening in myanmar and that i think that they will probably be watching to see how the military rounds up people and the way that they take over power and of course you have to project the fact that there will probably be reactions from society in terms of potential protests so i think that india will probably be on the side of not having very warm relationship with this military takeover thank you so much praised brigitte for talking to us about this so we appreciate your insight bridget welsh joining us there from kuala lumpur . we'll continue to follow the situation in myanmar of course but in the meantime

let's move on to other world news and former u.s. president donald trump has named a new legal team to head is impeachment defense this comes after trying parted ways with his lead impeachment lawyers on saturday he's accused of inciting his supporters to storm the capitol building on january sake's after he repeated false claims that he lection from his aides say they plan to argue the trial is unconstitutional because he's no longer in office particle is on capitol hill she says trump is trying to put up a strong front. but the president trying to send the message that with just days february 9th this is impeachment trial that he's got this legal team in place now this comes after the 5 lawyers who were fairly well known seem to have quit his defense and the reports were it was because he wanted them to say the votes were stolen that the he won the election obviously it's unclear what kind of legal strategy that would be not only would it be false lying to congress is in fact

a crime it would if the legal argument is he won the election are they then making the legal argument that it was ok for a writer's mob to storm the capitol and we're 5 people died so apparently they're not going to take that tack to the statement saying that they're going to argue that this is unconstitutional as you mention because he left office and that is something that they point out that $45.00 republicans in the senate wanted to debate before the impeachment trial it was voted down but they wanted to talk about whether it's constitutional in hong kong media tycoon and pro-democracy activist jimmy nigh is appearing in the city's top court is facing the government's appeal against the decision to extend his bail the 73 year old is accused of fraud and conspiring with foreign forces under china's sweeping national security along. his critique of beijing's leadership band the highest profile person to be charged under the controversial legislation and is outside the court in hong kong with more . it's highly charged we've seen minor skirmishes between supporters of jimmy law

and pro-democracy supporters and the probe aging supporter this case in particular is of great interest to beijing it's a very sensitive case and it's also the 1st national security law case to reach the final court of appeal in the proceedings of the day jimmy lies l'oreal's will be arguing for bail to find out whether he will remain in jail or would be able to go home between now and the actual trial and april he was granted bail in december 23rd already but due to noises from beijing mostly in the form of state media commenting on how hong kong's courts were not well versed in the national security law and hong kong's national security the department of justice brought that case back to the courts on december 31st and he was returned to jail jimmy lie as the

media mogul and one of the most high profile pro-democracy activists it's a very strong international ties this case is set to set is said to set a precedent for national security law cases in hong kong that law was imposed by beijing on july 1st it's very vague and seen as draconian and it seemed to have many moving goalposts so lawyers here and prosecutors here are still said to be finding their way in this particular case is said to be able to define certain parameters for hong kong's national security law more and more cases are expected to be brought to prosecution in the future. israel is sending 5000 vaccine doses to palestinian medical workers according to a government spokesperson a country has been criticised for excluding palestinian occupied territories from its facts involved more than a quarter of israel's 9000000 p. or has received at least one bills by territories

and days or in the occupation have mostly relied on the un's kovacs scheme phyllis bennis is a fellow at the institute for policy studies in washington she says israel is not meeting its obligations under international law this isn't of course the only component of apartheid in israeli treatment of palestinians but it's the latest iteration israel is obligated under international law under the geneva conventions article $66.00 requires it to provide all the materials needed for public health and specifically preventive measures to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics exactly what we're facing here my understanding is that the the 5000 doses that are that the israelis are talking about are not being provided by israel it's the russian vaccine known as sputnik public vaccine all israel is doing is saying that they may allow it through the crossing from jordan to the west bank at

the king hussein allenby bridge that's a far cry from their obligation which is to provide for the entire occupied population and they should.