28 May 2008

The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) condemns the continued detention of Burma’s democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi by the country’s military dictators and calls on ASEAN leaders to get tough with the regime.

“How much more leeway is ASEAN going to allow Myanmar’s military authorities? Especially in this time of tragedy, in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, the junta continues to disregard the rule of law – its own law – and show no capacity whatsoever for compassion nor responsiveness to the will of the people of Burma who march and call for Daw Suu Kyi’s release,” said Member of Parliament Eva Kusuma Sundari, from Indonesia, speaking on behalf of AIPMC.

Parliamentarians from AIPMC strongly call for the immediate release of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi – who begins her sixth year of consecutive house arrest – especially as the military regime are in breach of their own legislation by detaining her further.

According to the law under which she is being held, Article 10b of the Burma State Protection Law, the regime are permitted to detain a person deemed to be a “threat to the sovereignty and security of the State and peace of the people” for not more than five years before having to be brought before a court of law.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest in May 2003.

AIPMC urges leaders of ASEAN states to take heed of the junta’s unlawful act and take tough action against the junta for flaunting principles and rules that uphold the region’s obligation to practice regional values of compassion and fairness.

If ASEAN leaders fail to condemn the junta for this unlawful act then they must share responsibility with Myanmar’s military generals on the continued detention of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the loss of ASEAN’s credibility.

“It is unlawful and inhumane especially in a time when every individual in Burma needs to be given the freedom to access humanitarian aid and attention and allowed to be close to their families and friends,” added MP Sundari.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s home was partially destroyed by the storm.

ENDS

For further information / media contact: Roshan Jason (AIPMC Executive Director), +6012-3750974

Malaysia Sun

Tuesday 27th May, 2008

(IANS)

In a move likely to spark new international criticism, Myanmar’s ruling military junta extended the house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi by six months, government sources confirmed Tuesday. Earlier in the day, police arrested 18 supporters of the Nobel peace laureate who were protesting her detention, opposition sources said.

Suu Kyi has been under continual house arrest for the past five years. Since returning to the country in 1988, she has spent 12 years under house arrest.

The latest extension of her open-ended detention came on the 18th anniversary of the landslide election of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) in Myanmar’s last general election. The junta refused to recognize those election results.

The 18 NLD members were arrested by plainclothes’ policemen as they marched from their headquarters to Suu Kyi’s Yangon home. They were taken in two vehicles to an unknown destination.

An NLD statement called on the ruling junta to immediately release Suu Kyi and party vice-chairman Tin O, ‘who are detained at their homes because of their unrelenting efforts for the emergence of democracy and human rights in the State.’

In apparent anticipation of a demonstration, Myanmar authorities parked five patrol cars, and one paddy car outside NLD headquarters and beefed up barricades on the road outside Suu Kyi’s compound.

Suu Kyi and Tin Oo have been under house arrest since May 30, 2003, when authorities charged her with threatening national security after pro-government thugs attacked her and her followers in Depayin, northern Myanmar, killing 70 NLD supporters.

According to Myanmar law, the government cannot keep prisoners charged with undermining national security under detention for more than five years.

The detention extension is likely to draw a fresh outcry of criticism of the regime by Western democracies, who are already in an uproar about the government’s obstructive response to an international effort to provide aid to victims of Cyclone Nargis, which slammed into the country May 2 and left at least 133,000 dead or missing and another 2.4 million people in dire need of emergency assistance.

Myanmar’s military junta has come under harsh criticism for impeding an international disaster relief effort for the victims of the cyclone, although there were signs of it opening up at a United Nations pledging conference in Yangon.

The regime is regarded as an international pariah for its poor human rights record and refusal to acknowledge the electoral win of the NLD in 1990.

The junta, run by Senior General Than Shwe, is notoriously suspicious of Western democracies and Westerners in general.

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Malaysia Sun
Tuesday 27th May, 2008
(IANS)

In a move likely to spark new international criticism, Myanmar’s ruling military junta extended the house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi by six months, government sources confirmed Tuesday. Earlier in the day, police arrested 18 supporters of the Nobel peace laureate who were protesting her detention, opposition sources said.

Suu Kyi has been under continual house arrest for the past five years. Since returning to the country in 1988, she has spent 12 years under house arrest.

The latest extension of her open-ended detention came on the 18th anniversary of the landslide election of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) in Myanmar’s last general election. The junta refused to recognize those election results.

The 18 NLD members were arrested by plainclothes’ policemen as they marched from their headquarters to Suu Kyi’s Yangon home. They were taken in two vehicles to an unknown destination.

An NLD statement called on the ruling junta to immediately release Suu Kyi and party vice-chairman Tin O, ‘who are detained at their homes because of their unrelenting efforts for the emergence of democracy and human rights in the State.’

In apparent anticipation of a demonstration, Myanmar authorities parked five patrol cars, and one paddy car outside NLD headquarters and beefed up barricades on the road outside Suu Kyi’s compound.

Suu Kyi and Tin Oo have been under house arrest since May 30, 2003, when authorities charged her with threatening national security after pro-government thugs attacked her and her followers in Depayin, northern Myanmar, killing 70 NLD supporters.

According to Myanmar law, the government cannot keep prisoners charged with undermining national security under detention for more than five years.

The detention extension is likely to draw a fresh outcry of criticism of the regime by Western democracies, who are already in an uproar about the government’s obstructive response to an international effort to provide aid to victims of Cyclone Nargis, which slammed into the country May 2 and left at least 133,000 dead or missing and another 2.4 million people in dire need of emergency assistance.

Myanmar’s military junta has come under harsh criticism for impeding an international disaster relief effort for the victims of the cyclone, although there were signs of it opening up at a United Nations pledging conference in Yangon.

The regime is regarded as an international pariah for its poor human rights record and refusal to acknowledge the electoral win of the NLD in 1990.

The junta, run by Senior General Than Shwe, is notoriously suspicious of Western democracies and Westerners in general.

Jakarta leg

(to be updated)

22 May 2008

The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) urges regional leaders to ensure that the ASEAN-led coordinating mechanism with the Myanmar authorities, for aid to victims of Cyclone Nargis, guarantees immediate, sufficient and effective help to survivors.

ASEAN must not allow this agreement to be yet another empty promise and diversion tactic of the Myanmar military junta. Delays on aid supplies and expertise must not be tolerated. The 2.5 million survivors – men, women and children who are members of our regional community – cannot afford any more delays. It has been close to three weeks since the cyclone hit Myanmar.

ASEAN must further specify how the coordinating mechanism will work to ensure that it speeds up and focuses human and material resources for a comprehensive program for immediate relief and long-term rehabilitation, not merely as a means to inhibit transparency and accountability.

“What exactly is ASEAN’s role? Will ASEAN help direct operations or merely be the telephone operator for the military regime? We are talking about saving innocent lives here and there needs to be more done,” said AIPMC President Kraisak Choonhavan.

ASEAN has to further ensure that it establishes an extensive mechanism that will ensure future disasters in the region will be addressed expediently and successfully.

ASEAN lacks the financial, material and human capacity needed for this massive effort. It needs to meaningfully involve the international community who are ready and equipped with the necessary expertise and resources. Countries such as France, the United Kingdom, United States and other European countries should be allow to have a significant role in the ASEAN’s efforts such as they did in the aftermath of the 2004 Asian Tsunami.

The junta’s continued refusal to allow nations with the required capacity and skills to tackle the outcomes of the disaster is extremely worrying. ASEAN cannot afford its tip-toeing around the military authorities of Myanmar.

The regional caucus reminds ASEAN not to be complacent while awaiting the ASEAN-UN donor meeting scheduled for Sunday, 25 May. Every delay means more deaths. ASEAN needs to now use the mechanism and impending meeting as leverage to open up the affected region to aid. The region cannot afford more talk and less action.

ASEAN needs to show that it is effective by acting quickly and by not allowing the junta to stifle international aid.

Ends

Media contact / further info: Roshan Jason (AIPMC Executive Director) +6012 375 0974

Associated Press / Jim Gomez

Tue 22 May 2007

Manila: Southeast Asian nations appealed to Myanmar on Tuesday not to renew pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention a demand that has sparked discord in their regional bloc.

Suu Kyi has been held continuously by Myanmar’s ruling junta since 2003. A detention order for her expires Sunday, but the junta is expected to renew it.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has given a face to the junta’s years-long political repression that has been condemned by Western nations, along with Myanmar’s fellow member countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN.

“It’s a consensus that we want to see her early release,” Philippine Foreign Undersecretary Erlinda Basilio said. “We’d like to see the lifting of the order.”

Basilio led a meeting of senior ASEAN diplomats to prepare the agenda for an annual meeting of the 10-country bloc’s foreign ministers in Manila in July. The Philippines will also host a meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum, Asia’s largest security forum, in August.

Myanmar’s delegate, Aung Bwa, said he was unaware if his government would extend Suu Kyi’s detention. “Let’s wait and see,” he said.

Imron Cotan, who led Indonesia’s delegation, expressed impatience at Myanmar’s slow pace of democratization. “We have made these calls repeatedly, and Myanmar has found it difficult to respond,” he said.

In Bangkok, visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill urged the junta in Myanmar, also called Burma, to free Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

“The continued incarceration or house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi is one of several issues that’s posing a real blockage in terms of Burma being able to rejoin the international community,” Hill told reporters after his meeting with Thai Foreign Minister Nitya Pibulsonggram.

Last week U.S. President George W. Bush told the American Congress that he intended to continue U.S. economic and political sanctions against Myanmar.

Calls for Myanmar to rapidly fulfill a pledge to democratize have become a familiar refrain in ASEAN’s annual meetings, and its spotty human rights record is again expected to be a key issue at the Manila meetings.

Although bound by an ASEAN edict not to interfere in each other’s affairs, some members, like Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia, have become more blunt in their criticism, urging Myanmar to show tangible progres toward its promised democratization.

Authoritarian members, like Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, have adopted a friendlier attitude and have refused to engage in stinging criticism of Myanmar.

Asked if Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who is visiting Myanmar, would take up Suu Kyi’s detention with the junta, Cambodian diplomat Kao Kim Hourn did not answer clearly.

“In such a high-level meeting, anything is possible,” he said.

Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962, and the currently ruling generals took power in 1988. They called elections in 1990, but refused to recognize the results when Suu Kyi’s party won a resounding victory.

Myanmar should have held ASEAN’s rotating chairmanship and hosted the regional summit this year, but it gave up the chance amid protests by Western governments.

The prestigious chairmanship, rotated alphabetically among all members, was abruptly passed on to the Philippines.