Kyaw Zwar Minn, a former military colonel and currently Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, encountered a different battle on Wednesday after being locked out of his country’s embassy—an apparent price for criticizing the military junta and calling for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi last month.
“It’s a kind of coup, in the middle of London… you can see that they occupy my building,” he told Reuters. Diplomatic sources said that deputy ambassador Chit Win had taken over as charge d’affairs and he and the military attaché had locked the ambassador out of the building.
As protesters gathered outside the embassy, police were called in. That didn’t help resolve the standoff. The British foreign ministry said it was trying to gather information. The Ambassador apparently spent the night in his car.