A Facebook death threat to Suu Kyi

Police take it seriously and assign a special unit to protect her:

Police in Myanmar have for the first time decided to give protection to Aung San Suu Kyi after a death threat. A police chief told BBC Burmese that a special unit had now been assigned to protect the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), which has just taken power in Myanmar.

The threat was issued over a possible constitutional change enabling Suu Kyi to become President. She spent many years under house arrest under the former military dictatorship.

A liberalisation process has been under way in recent years, leading to a landslide victory by Suu Kyi’s NLD in elections in November.

The man who made the death threat has since apologised but the threat, made in a Facebook post, was taken seriously.

“I told the local police office straight away to take care of her security when I saw the post. We cannot afford anything to happen to a person of her stature,” the police chief told the BBC. Up until now, Suu Kyi has been protected by her own security detail, who will continue to guard her. Police units will provide extra protection outside her home.

The threat against her life was made amid reports that she aims to sidestep a clause in the constitution that bars her from becoming president because her two sons have foreign passports.

The man said he would kill her if the constitution was changed and had also posted pictures of himself carrying an assault rifle. She appears to be planning to get her MPs to temporarily suspend the clause.

She has also reportedly been negotiating the issue with military chief General Min Aung Hlaing, whose support she would need.

The clause can be legally scrapped only through a 75%-plus-one vote in parliament but the military holds 25% of the seats – all unelected.

Suu Kyi’s father, national hero General Aung San, was assassinated in 1947, months before the country gained independence.