As Nobel Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s term of house arrest is scheduled to end on May 27, members of Free Burma Coalition-Philippines (FBC-Phils) and Asia Pacific Solidarity Coalition (APSOC) yesterday warned the ruling military junta in Burma known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) to immediately release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest or the Burmese regime would face more international protests.
As Nobel Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s term of house arrest is scheduled to end on May 27, members of Free Burma Coalition-Philippines (FBC-Phils) and Asia Pacific Solidarity Coalition (APSOC) yesterday warned the ruling military junta in Burma known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) to immediately release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest or the Burmese regime would face more international protests.
The statement came on the 2^nd National Assembly of the Free Burma Coalition-Philippines held yesterday at Balay Kalinaw in UP Diliman, where the coalition, composed of various NGOs and peoples’ organizations launched their “Free Daw Aung San Suu Kyi” campaign.
Akbayan Party-List Rep. Etta Rosales, a member of the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) was the keynote speaker for the national assembly. There were also invited visitors from Burma who discussed about the current political situation in Burma.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, 61, has spent 10 of the last 17 years of her political life under house arrest in Burma, this, amid increasingly vocal international demands for her immediate and unconditional release. She has been under detention since May 2003, with no contact to the outside world.
Her party, the National League for Democracy won the 1990 parliamentary elections garnering 82% of the parliamentary seats, but was never allowed to assume power and party members and sympathizers of the NLD are still experiencing harassment from the military authorities.
Burma remains a Garrison State
Egoy Bans, coordinator of the Burma campaign of Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID), the FBC-Phils secretariat said, “detaining a leader like Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is unacceptable. The junta is insulting the international community by continuously detaining Daw Aung San Suu Kyi who had spent more than a decade of her life in detention without the benefit of facing a decent court.”
He added, “Burma is a garrison state. Despite repeated demands for genuine democratic reforms the junta remains bullheaded. We take this opportunity to appeal to the ASEAN, in which Burma is a member to castigate its rogue neighbor and for the UN to bring back the Burma agenda in the UNSC, but this time no vetoes.
It will be remembered that the UN Security Council attempted on January to include Burma on the council’s formal agenda but countries including Russia, China and India vetoed the resolution
Cory, FVR call to free Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
Just last week, 59 former Heads of State including former Philippine Presidents Corazon Aquino and Fidel Ramos, joined the demand for the immediate release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. A letter sent and signed by former Heads of State was addressed to Burmese long time dictator Senior Gen. Tan Shwe.
Said letter was backed by new UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon who called for the release not just of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi but of all the political prisoners in Burma last January 8, 2007. This call by Ban Ki-moon was recently reiterated by the UN in a statement released May 10, 2007 by 14 UN human rights mandate holders led by Prof. Paulo Pinheiro, the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Burma.
Expect more actions
Bans explained, “We have reasons to be alarmed because the military junta for the past 3 years habitually extends the house arrest of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Until now, the military government treats her and her supporters as enemies of the state.”
He concluded, “The junta should prepare itself to face more protests if it will do the same thing on May 27. If that happens, the entire democratic movement will visit Burma embassies. That is a promise.”
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