Hello, my name's David Rundsenman and this is Talking Politics. Today's extra episode is with

Theant Mintu, the author of the Hidden History of Burma, and he is going to tell us what's been

happening in the country since last week's coup.

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So maybe don't we should just start with where we are today. So we're recording this UK time on Tuesday morning.

We're about a week out from the coup. What's your understanding of the current situation?

The coup was on the 1st of February. The army took over, arrested the president and the de facto head of government.

Aung San Suu Kyi said that they were acting within the emergency provisions of the Constitution.

They said that they would hand back power after holding elections within a year's time.

Since then, protests have been growing every day.

They've spread around the country in several different towns and cities.

Over the past 48 hours, we've seen massive protests in the biggest city, the former capital,

Rangoon, maybe hundreds of thousands of people on the streets yesterday.

Yesterday evening, the government put out new regulations, and this morning they also

blocked major intersections

and bridges as well in the city. So the protests, I think, have become smaller, but they have

continued. And in Napudor, the capital, we're getting the first reports that someone may have

been killed in altercations between protesters and the security forces. So it's a very, very fluid time.

We don't know what momentum the protests have. They seem very determined. People seem incredibly

energized in their desire to oppose this takeover by the military. But we just don't know what's

...