(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) – The following is a statement by ARTICLE 19, released on 11 September. ARTICLE 19, the London-based freedom of expression movement, said today that it is desperately concerned for the safety of its International Board member, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and that of more than 200 members of her National League for […]
(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) – The following is a statement by ARTICLE 19, released on
11 September.
ARTICLE 19, the London-based freedom of expression movement, said today that
it is desperately concerned for the safety of its International Board
member, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and that of more than 200 members of her
National League for Democracy (NLD) party who have been detained in Burma in
recent days.
Frances D’Souza, ARTICLE 19’s Executive Director, said:
“Since she returned to Burma ten years ago to lead the campaign for
democracy, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s life has everyday been on the line. Why?
Because she embodies the democratic values to which the mass of Burma’s
peoples aspire, as demonstrated by the NLD’s overwhelming victory in the
1990 elections. Despite house arrest, isolation, threat and harassment, and
amid the continuing persecution of her supporters, she has kept alive the
message of hope in one of the world’s most censored states. It is this which
has made her so potent a threat to the oppressive military regime which
rules Burma today.”
ARTICLE 19 said it was dismayed by the continuing failure of the
international community to adequately address the crisis in Burma.
According to Frances D’Souza:
“Burma’s military junta has one of the world’s worst records of human rights
violations, including torture, political killings, slavery-like abuses, the
political imprisonment of thousands. It is also an illegitimate government –
it cancelled elections rather than accept the people’s choice, on the one
occasion when they had an opportunity to express it in 1990 – and remains in
power through brute force. Yet the international community allows it still
to occupy a seat at the United Nations and Burma was recently welcomed into
the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
“Burma’s military leaders should be left in no doubt by the UN and other
governments that they will lose these concessions and be held to account
internationally unless they respect human rights and rapidly move the
country to democracy.”