(WiPC/IFEX) – WiPC protests the Burmese authorities’ decision to extend Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s house arrest for a fourth consecutive year. PEN calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Suu Kyi and all others detained in Myanmar in violation of Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. According to […]
(WiPC/IFEX) – WiPC protests the Burmese authorities’ decision to extend Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s house arrest for a fourth consecutive year. PEN calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Suu Kyi and all others detained in Myanmar in violation of Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
According to PEN’s information, the military authorities announced on 27 May 2007 that Suu Kyi’s detention order was being renewed for another year and that she was to remain under house arrest. Security around her residence was tightened following the announcement, and a gathering of her supporters planned for 28 May was violently dispersed by police. Aung San Suu Kyi was taken into “protective custody” following violent clashes between her supporters and those of the government on 30 May 2003, and has since been held under renewable one-year detention orders.
Suu Kyi, daughter of Burma’s independence hero General Aung San, became leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in September 1988, and in 1991 led the NLD to a landslide election victory which has never been recognised by the military government. Prior to this she had lived in the UK for many years, where she raised two sons with her late husband British academic Michael Aris, who died in March 1999 of cancer. Suu Kyi has spent a large part of the past 18 years in detention in Rangoon, much of it in solitary confinement. She was held under de facto house arrest for six years from July 1989-July 1995, and again from September 2000 until May 2002, when she was released as part of UN-brokered confidential talks between the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) and the NLD, which began in October 2000. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October 1991. She is the author of many books, including Freedom From Fear (1991), Letters from Burma (1997), The Voice of Hope (1997).
International PEN protests the detention of writer and opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who it considers to be detained in violation of Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We call upon the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) to show its commitment to political dialogue in Myanmar by securing the immediate and unconditional release of Suu Kyi and all others detained in Myanmar for the peaceful expression of their views.
