Monday, November 09, 2009
Aung San Suu Kyi and the US envoy Kurt Campbell. Photograph: Hla Hla Htay
Yeah. Miracles can happen. But usually no one's around to see them.
Like I said. I'll believe it when I see it.
Burma's opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, may soon be released so she can play a role in next year's election, a senior Burmese diplomat has said.
"There is a plan to release her soon ... so she can organise her party," Min Lwin, a director-general in the foreign ministry, to ld the Associated Press. He gave no details and it was unclear whether Aung San Suu Kyi would be allowed to campaign or stand for election.
Despite the conciliatory remarks, the country's constitution includes provisions that bar her from holding office and ensure the primacy of the government in the military.
The Nobel peace prize winner has spent 14 of the last 20 years under house arrest. In August a court sentenced her to an additional 18 months after an American, John Yettaw, swam across a lake to her villa in Rangoon and stayed overnight.
Burma's junta in the the past has raised expectations of Aung San Suu Kyi's imminent release only to dash the hopes of her supporters at home and abroad.
Pro-democracy campaigners cautioned against reading too much into the latest hints on Suu Kyi's release. "They've been saying these sorts of things for a long time but they have never delivered on them," said Anna Roberts, the director of the Burma Campaign UK. "The regime's main concern is get economic sanctions lifted and get approval for the sham elections next year."
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Statement by the President on Aung San Suu Kyi’s conviction and sentencing
The conviction and sentencing of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi today on charges related to an uninvited intrusion into her home violate universal principles of human rights, run counter to Burma’s commitments under the ASEAN charter, and demonstrate continued disregard for UN Security Council statements. I join the international community in calling for Aung San Suu Kyi’s immediate unconditional release.
Today’s unjust decision reminds us of the thousands of other political prisoners in Burma who, like Aung San Suu Kyi, have been denied their liberty because of their pursuit of a government that respects the will, rights, and aspirations of all Burmese citizens. They, too, should be freed. Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. I call on the Burmese regime to heed the views of its own people and the international community and to work towards genuine national reconciliation.
I am also concerned by the sentencing of American citizen John Yettaw to seven years in prison, a punishment out of proportion with his actions.
Another article at the Washington Post with Suu Kyi's international counsel Jared Genser.
Suu Kyi and American Convicted By Burmese CourtBurmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced Tuesday to an additional 18 months under house arrest on charges of breaching the terms of her previous incarceration by harboring an American tourist who swam across a lake bordering her villa and entered her heavily guarded property uninvited.
*Will This Ever End?*
Monday, May 18, 2009
You know what people - I just don't like the feeling I'm getting from the news I'm reading on the current trial for Aung San Suu Kyi who's bascially getting the shaft for some dumbass who decided to swim across a lake and sneak into her home earlier this month - because let's face it - the timing is suspect.
Hmm...I wonder what's going to happen now.
