it has just it hasjust gone it has just gone half past four now on bbc news: hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. it seems myanmar�*s military is prepared to kill as many pro—democracy protesters as it takes to safeguard its grip on power. so what options do the opponents of the coup have left? well, my guest is doctor sasa, representative of the committee which represents the ousted parliament to the united nations. why has myanmar�*s democratic transition gone to so tragically wrong? dr sasa, welcome to hardtalk. thank you very much for having me, stephen. it's a pleasure to have you on the show. i cannot say where you are because i know you want to keep your location secret. but it is clear that you escaped from myanmar in the hours and days after the february one coup. as i understand it, you were with aung san suu kyi in the hours before the coup. can you tell me exactly what happened to you? it was the 1st of february that the military coup stolen democracy from the people of myanmar. so there was not only me there were members of parliament that were elected by the people of myanmar for the people of myanmar. because the president, vice presidents, state counsellors to aung san suu kyi. we all are in the city. so that day when we wake up we found our phones are dead. all the signals are down, television was dead. all we saw was the military men with the guns, the smoking guns. guns pointing at all the elected members of parliament. and then we found that it was being taken by guns. the will of the people of myanmar was once again silenced. by smoking guns. i was told by top advisers to leave as soon as possible so that i can speak at parliament and our leaders who are being illegally detained. and i drove, a taxi driver, it took me two days and three nights in the freezing cold. and i thought i would also be arrested on the way because so many military checkpoints. it was a terrible night, it was terrible but i survived. and now i'm in a relatively safe place. how come you were told to flee, told to escape and you managed to escape and so many others did not? including aung san suu kyi. were they not given the same information as you that they should flee immediately? we are living in separate buildings, they were in separate buildings of the member of parliament, living in some building. the president, the vice president are all in different buildings. so i was lucky that i was living in different building at the time. that way i would safe. as one of the key voices now of the movement against the coup, how much real time information are you able to get from inside your country? every morning, every noon, every evening i go to briefing every morning i met with the people on our lines. so i'm keep in touch as much as possible. and i have a team on the ground briefing me and they give me everything what's happening there. so i'm in touch with them regularly. as we understand it and we see the graphic, the very troubling video evidence of the violence that the military is using to quell the pro demonstrations of many thought but not towns and cities across myanmar. we understand that scores of people have been killed. what is your information about the numbers who are dead and wounded as these protests and demonstrations continue? stephen, it's very clear that it's illegal this military regime were prepared and they are smart and they have plans to hunt as many as possible and to kill as many as possible. the snipers are on high and police forces and the military forces are on the streets. they occupy the schools, they occupy the hospitals and they raid at night. at least now more than 2,000 people has been detained illegally. including our president, counsellor aung san suu kyi and at least 62 people have been killed. i've got to ask you this, you are one of the powerful voices now in the committee representing the ousted parliament. would it be the responsible thing for you right now to send a message to the people of myanmar saying you'd better stay off the streets, it's too dangerous, the bloodshed is too much. and for now at least we need to stop the demonstrations. is that something that you as a medical doctor if nothing else, have contemplated saying to your people? it's no difference between stay at home or stay in the street. every night the military, the police raid the house of the suspect that they think are against them. even if they stay at home it's not make any difference in front of this army generals. who are determined to kill and to shoot. so right now, even the railway workers today, railway workers they strike at their homes. they are not outside of their home. but military generals send their troops to civilian arms of the railway workers. they are evicting workers from their houses and they make the railway workers homeless, homeless just being on strike. that shows how the brutality that we have. every night the mums are fear that this may be the night that my husband will be taken away. and the husband ourfear, today maybe my wife will be taken away by this military. the children are worried that way. even i could tell you right now, my mum and my dad just stay home. they are not protesting it all. they are in the village but they have been told to leave, to flee the village. now they are on the road away to india. burma border. it's very sad. my brothers, my sisters they are not protesting at all. they are just staying at home. my mum, she cancer patient, just got operation a few months ago. so we can understand how serious violation of human rights and the crimes against humanity has been taken place in myanmar, unfortunately. i just wonder if you think the policy of the civil disobedience movement, as it's being called, of continuing strike action as you say railway workers, transportation workers, bank workers, civil servants many workers are currently on strike. the economy of myanmar is obviously in a state of meltdown. and there is real evidence of growing extreme poverty inside the country. do you think the idea of civil disobedience including strikes is actually imposing real economic hardship on the poorest people in your country? i think that the economy right now, the problem is that all the economics of the country under the hand of the generals. they've stolen our economy from the people of myanmar for their own interest. and we, the people of myanmar will never allow our democracy will be stolen by them. will not allow our freedom be stolen by them, by guns. so we have been saying again and again to international community and also to ourselves, we will not die of starvation, we will not die of starvation but we will die if we have no freedom. we will die if we have no democracy. so this civil disobedience movement will not kill us, it's the guns and weapons, it's the military regimes that will kill us. it's not only my generation. we take off my children's generation, my grand children's generation if the system is not change. if this regime behaviour is not changed we have no future. that means the crime against humanity will wipe out us. so this is the way how we stop this military regime. and we are determined to fight to the end. well, i want to get to the international response you've seen in just a moment. just to continue with the situation inside myanmar. i just wonder what you and your committee representing the parliament, what is your strategy right now? because the generals appear completely unyielding. their position is not changing at all. so are you now thinking that you will have to enter a dialogue with them or do you feel that that is an impossibility right now? these illegal military regime has to stop all kinds of violence. against the people of myanmar. because they have declare the war on the people of myanmar. and the people of myanmar should be protected by our armed forces. we have defence ministry to defend the people of myanmar and the country. the ones who should be defending our the people are killing our people. so that is not acceptable. so that means that unless they stop this violence there is no negotiation to whatever. they have to release all our leaders, democratically elected and all that they have detained illegally. and only we can talk about negotiation. 0n the face of the bloodshed, on the face of the suffering and the pain that they've imposed to the maximum, they cannot call any kind of negotiation. has to stop first. to be clear, you are not prepared to talk to the military regime at all until aung san suu kyi, all of the other and prison politicians have been released and that the army has taken take off the streets? that is correct. because they are still killing the people of myanmar. they have to stop the violence first, they must stop. what is the point of us talking? but they show no indication of being prepared to do that. what they have said is that they won't maintain the state of emergency but they will promise to hold new elections. because they say they november 2020 elections were rigged. they will hold new elections after one year. in your opinion, is that perhaps the basis for at the beginning of a negotiation or not? no. we have had election already. in 2020, november eight when the people of myanmar have spoken clearly and loudly an elected member of parliament by the people of myanmar for the people of myanmar to the presence and uphold the people of myanmar. and to uphold democracy freedom. and that was silenced by guns, smoking guns. we will never accept the stolen elections. and the will of the people of myanmar will not be silenced by such kind of atrocities they have caused us. —imposed and most importantly, the manufacturer the vote at least of four million fraud from military battalions. the military officers known election officers. they have nothing to do with elections. so they produced a manufacturer from, 10.4 million voter fraud without evidence or proof whatsoever. so itjust completely their plan. i understand your current position. you have appealed to the international community to help you. you now are of course the sort of representative for the ousted parliament to the united nations. and you said that quote, "we need the international elected "members of parliament. " the truth is around the world reaction to what has happened in myanmar is mixed. i mean, you've got the us government and the british government putting some targeted sanctions on more members of the military counsel, you've got condemnation from many countries of the coup. but then you've got china which refused to allow the security council to explicitly condemn the coup. and you've got the asean nations. your neighbours all saying that they want the situation to stay calm, they want a dialogue to be established and they are prepared to work with both the military regime and people like yourself to establish that dialogue. so, are you satisfied with what you're getting from the international community or not? well, china has the power to stop all kinds of violence that's happening. china has the power to reign the military of myanmar. the asaen and our brothers and sisters, our neighbours have the power and the ability and the responsibility to stop this bloodshed. but they don't want to, they don't want to. of course the united nations has been strongly opposed and the assembly of this a military coup. and american governments, united states have put sanctions, the british government has put sanctions on the generals. this somehow will help the generals to stop and think again. and we must have more coordinated sanctions, more targeted sanctions and more time for —tougher sanctions from the international community. also we must have unified and strong message coming from washington, dc and london and brussels to these generals. saying this is unacceptable. we need stronger and unified voices. and targeted and tougher and coordinated sanctions against this military. not onlyjust the military but also all the people who involved in helping the military to take the power from the people of myanmar. here's the thing, why do you think that perhaps the most important players in this, that is china and your neighbours in asean. are not speaking out in the way that you would like against the military coup? you said recently, "good neighbours should not play games with military coup leaders who are holding these smoking guns." and yet at the very same time we know that asean was reaching out to the military regime, was holding talks with them. so why, in your opinion, is asean not following your wishes? unfortunately, i think they do not realise that having this has made generals on their side. will put asean on shame international stage. and their legacy as asean will be damage. in their reputation and dignity gone. i think they do not realise the reality of that calculation that history will judge us harshly. if we do not act like this. because this is common sense to stop this bloodshed. we asean people are peaceful. we do not accept this kind of violence. and it's happening in the family of their people. very bad. they have the responsibility to tell him enough is enough. of course this is very important that commission like japan and as well as indian and as well as our western allies must stand with the people of myanmar. if they failed to stand with us the situation will pull us closer to china. even to russia. so that's not what the western world would like to see. it's a very critical situation right now. we are at a crossroads. now if we do not restore democracy and freedom of the situation will put us more closer to china, more closer to russia and also even more closer to north korea. because we know that the military regime has a relationship with north korea. kim jong—un and they will develop weapons to sustain power. so we don't like that happen. we do not allow that to happen. i hear that message. but dr sasa, is it not time to acknowledge that the figurehead leader of the national league for democracy state counsellor aung san suu kyi, she bears a very significant amount of responsibility for what has happened in myanmar. because she took the decision to work closely with the military to try to get your country on the path to democracy. she took a gamble that she could work with the military. she gave them guarantees about having 25% of the seats in parliament. she then watched them launch their military, their violent military campaign against the rohingya people and she not only didn't speak out against it, she went to the international court in the hague and defended the military. now the military has turned on her. but isn't it time to acknowledge she made some terrible mistakes? i agree that some mistakes has been done. but stephen, look at the situation, 2008 constitution was not draught by aung san suu kyi. it was written and created by the generals for 20 years, to sustain their power. and under the 2008 constitution that promised 35% of reserve seats for the military generals. including minister of foreign affairs, minister of defence, one vice president and minister of home affairs. just imagine in government when half of the most powerful seeds of cabinets are taken away by the army. i understand, she didn't draught that constitution but she chose to play along with the generals. because it seems she also, in her heart is something of a nationalist in myanmar. she didn't have a problem it seems with what the military was doing to the rohingya people. now you you yourself a very former former minority community in myanmar. i'm just wondering whether or not it is now time in your opinion for the pro—democracy movement to say, in the future aung san suu kyi isn't going to be our figurehead leader. we need to find new leaders. that we can'tjust go back to the status quo before february 2021. we in the democratic movement need to change, we need to unify myanmar behind new leadership. is that what you feel now or not? definitely we cannot go back. definitely we cannot go back to the past. we have to move on to the future. of course the situation is different now than it was then. but let me just say this, under aung san suu kyi administration health care, education and all those sectors in the economy has been improved. there have been improved. of course this is not the time for us to blame any elected officers. the generals were prepared for game for half a century. it is the generals in 1997 and 1990 eight they killed a thousand students. it is the generals. there minority people. in 1997 in 1988 they killed a thousand students. in 1997 again. and 2007 and again 2017 and out again. this is for the international community the world and asean and china to decide it's better for us to a stable country, democratic country, free country. it's notjust only for the people of myanmar. it is for asean, china, india. its for all over the world. it's a win, win, win situation. we must stand but the people of myanmar. dr sasa, i thank you very much indeed forjoining me on hardtalk. thank you. hello. march may have come in like a lamb, but the lion has now arrived early. and, after a stormy night, we have a very windy thursday to come — yes, some sunshine, but also heavy, blustery showers. all around an area of low pressure that's sitting to the north of us, but the tightly—packed isobars right across us indicating that wherever you are, thursday will be a very windy day. but it's england and wales bearing the brunt of the strongest, most disruptive winds, particularly early in the day as we see this area of wet weather move across northern england, wales, the midlands, and on towards east anglia. first thing in the day, the strongest winds will be wales, western england, gusting up to 70 mph, maybe more exposed coastal hills, especially in wales, very rough seas and large waves hitting the coastline here, so that could be disruptive in terms of flooding. and the winds across england and wales as they continue to gust, 50—60 mph, maybe a little bit more in places during the morning, could be disruptive before easing gradually into the afternoon. weather—wise, wherever you are, it is sunshine and blustery showers from heavy hail and thunder. these are your wind gusts at the end of the afternoon, so they're easing a bit in england and wales, but still very windy in northern ireland — in fact, the winds picking up again in northwest scotland, approaching 60 mph at this stage. single figures in scotland and northern ireland, 9—12 celsius in england and wales. and it remains very blustery overnight thursday and into friday. further showers around increasingly falling as snow into the hills of scotland, perhaps northern ireland, into the pennines, as well — some here with a covering of snow at the higher ground as friday starts. and these are your temperatures. and then, for friday, spot the difference — yes, there'll be drier moments and sunshine, but there'll be further heavy showers around, some with hail and thunder, and still falling as snow into the hills of scotland, northern ireland, northern england, perhaps into wales at times, too, the higher up you are. and, ifanything, perhaps a little bit cooler on friday. and then, into the weekend, well, still low pressure. a frontal system bringing more wet weather more widely overnight and into saturday. then saturday, it's sunshine and showers. bit of a lull first thing sunday, but this weather system bringing more rain at least into western parts as we go on through sunday. so, a selection of locations here for your sunday weather. and then, looking into next week, well, it turns drier and calmer once again, as that march lamb makes a comeback. this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm sally bundock. hope, as the world marks exactly a year since this the pandemic was declared, with the vaccine now reaching some of the most cut—off communities. nearly $2 trillion approved by us lawmakers to kickstart the america economy — with some of the money going straight into americans�* pockets. people injapan return to the ocean, to pay tribute to those killed in the tsunami, ten years ago to the day. and what a mess. barcelona out of the champions league — their worst performance in 1a years.