Suu Kyi, Myanmar Political Prisoner

By David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

RANGOON, Union of Myanmar – The anticipated release of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, scheduled for November 13, has placed the Burmese government under International pressure.  Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won in a landslide election success in Myanmar in 1990, but the military junta overruled the results.  

Aung San Suu Kyis supporters rally at Burmas embassy in Tokyo yesterday
Aung San Suu Kyi's supporters rally at Burma's embassy in Tokyo yesterday

Suu Kyi, has become the icon of Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement and remains the military government’s most well-known opposition.  Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962. Critics say the coming elections aim to create a disguise of democracy. The regime recently passed a law that made her ineligible to stand in the November 7 election because of her court conviction, due to a bizarre incident in which an American swam to her lakeside home.

The November poll is part of the junta’s long-announced “roadmap to democracy”, but critics have dismissed it as a sham designed to keep the military in power.

The country needs to show the world that its November elections are credible by releasing Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said this week.

“The regime has repeatedly claimed it intended to release her on various dates over the years and has then failed to follow through on its commitment to release her.  So, ultimately, I don’t tend to follow what they say, but rather what they do,” said attorney Jared Genser, who is based in Washington.

Mr. Ban said after Monday’s meeting, that the ministers had reiterated the need for the election process to be “more inclusive, participatory and transparent”.

Nyan Win, the foreign minister, rejected international condemnation on Tuesday, insisting that the junta is committed to a “free and fair” vote.

But, uncertainty continues to mount over whether the military regime will actually release the 65-year-old human rights and democratic activist, known reverently among Myanmar’s people as “The Lady”, will remain until the moment she appears in public.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) was forcibly disbanded in May, under the new and prohibitive election laws.

Government hurdles to opposition candidates include a fee of $500 per candidate, the equivalent of several months’ pay, for the majority of the Burmese people.

The National Democratic Force (NDF), a breakaway opposition party, is among those planning to contest the vote, a decision that put it at odds with Suu Kyi.

A Myanmar analyst based in Thailand said any release would come with conditions and that Suu Kyi “won’t be free to go out”.  “It’s a military dictatorship. No matter what the legal background of the issue, if they don’t want to release her, she won’t be released,” Aung Naing Oo said.

Along with promises to release Suu Kyi, the government, this week, moved to quash what it views as attempts to undermine the vote.

For more information, please see:

CNN World – Lawyers skeptical about Myanmar releasing Suu Kyi – 1 October 2010

Al Jazerra English – Suu Kyi to be ‘freed’ after polls – 1 October 2010

BBC – UN chief call for ‘inclusive’ Burma election – 27 September 2010

Author: Impunity Watch Archive