SECURITY COUNCIL VOICES ‘SERIOUS CONCERN’ AT AUNG SAN SUU KYI VERDICT

The Security Council today added its voice to those calling for the release of all political prisoners in Myanmar, while expressing concern over this week's verdict against pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

"The members of the Security Council express serious concern at the conviction and sentencing of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and its political impact," Ambassador John Sawers of the United Kingdom, which holds the rotating Council presidency this month, said in a statement read out to the press.

Ms. Suu Kyi, who leads the National League for Democracy (NLD), was convicted on 11 August of violating state security laws after an uninvited United States citizen gained access to her home.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who has already spent over 12 years under house arrest, was sentenced to a further 18 months of the same punishment.

The Council also reiterated the importance of the release of all political prisoners and urged the Government of Myanmar "to take further measures to create the necessary conditions for a genuine dialogue with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all concerned parties and ethnic groups in order to achieve an inclusive national reconciliation."

Earlier this week, both Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UN human rights chief Navi Pillay deplored the decision by the Myanmar court and urged that Ms. Suu Kyi be released immediately and unconditionally.

"Unless she and all other political prisoners in Myanmar are released and allowed to participate in free and fair elections, the credibility of the political process will remain in doubt," a spokesperson for Mr. Ban said in a statement.
________________

DEPLORING MYANMAR VERDICT, BAN URGES IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF AUNG SAN SUU KYI

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today deplored the decision by a Myanmar court to sentence pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to an additional 18 months of house arrest, and urged that she be released immediately.

"The Secretary-General is deeply disappointed by the verdict in respect of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi," his spokesperson said in a statement. "The Secretary-General strongly deplores this decision."

Ms. Suu Kyi, who leads the National League for Democracy (NLD), was reportedly convicted of violating state security laws after an uninvited United States citizen gained access to her home. She has already spent over 12 years under house arrest.

Mr. Ban urged the Government to "immediately and unconditionally" release Ms. Suu Kyi and to engage with her without delay as an essential partner in the process of national dialogue and reconciliation

"Unless she and all other political prisoners in Myanmar are released and allowed to participate in free and fair elections, the credibility of the political process will remain in doubt," today's statement added.

The Government had refused Mr. Ban's request to meet with Ms. Suu Kyi when he visited the South-East Asian nation in July, losing what the UN chief called a "unique opportunity" to show its commitment to a new era of political openness.

He added that allowing the visit "would have been an important symbol of the Government's willingness to embark on the kind of meaningful engagement that will be essential if the elections in 2010 are to be seen as credible."

________________

UN RIGHTS EXPERTS PRESS MYANMAR TO GIVE AUNG SAN SUU KYI FAIR TRIAL

A group of independent United Nations human rights experts today called on the authorities of Myanmar to ensure an "open and fair" trial for opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her two aides.

"So far, the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi and her aides has been marred by flagrant violations of substantive and procedural rights," said Leandro Despouy, the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers.

The trial has mostly been conducted behind closed doors and the media have been denied access to defence lawyers. "Transparency in the administration of justice is a pre-requisite of any State governed by the rule of law," stressed Mr. Despouy.

In addition, the defence team has only been allowed to present one witness and one more was granted permission to testify, compared with the prosecution which has called 14 witnesses.

"The court must ensure that all witnesses who may have relevant evidence are able to testify," said Mr. Despouy.

Security forces arrested Ms. Suu Kyi, who leads the National League for Democracy (NLD), and two aides on 14 May and took them to Insein Prison, where they were charged by a special court. They are said to have been charged with violating the terms of her house arrest, after an uninvited United States citizen gained access to their home.

She has been under house arrest for more than 13 of the past 19 years, according to a news release issued by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva.

After being rearrested in 2003, her period of detention was extended until it reached the maximum term permitted under Myanmar's own laws in May 2008. It was then illegally extended for another year by the authorities, the human rights experts said.

"The five experts called upon the authorities of Myanmar to allow the justice system to function in an independent and impartial manner, so as to guarantee an open and fair trial for the defendants, and to grant unfettered media access," stated the news release.

The group of experts also include Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Manuela Carmena Castrilo; the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana; the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya; and the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue.

They all report to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council in an independent and unpaid capacity.
________________

MYANMAR: SECURITY COUNCIL VOICES CONCERN OVER DETENTION OF PRO-DEMOCRACY LEADER

MYANMAR: SECURITY COUNCIL VOICES CONCERN OVER DETENTION OF PRO-DEMOCRACY LEADER
New York, May 22 2009 7:00PM
The Security Council today expressed its concern over the political impact in Myanmar of the detention of opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

In a <"http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2009/sc9662.doc.htm">press statement, the 15-member body reiterated "the importance of the release of all political prisoners," repeating the need for Myanmar's Government to "create the necessary conditions for a genuine dialogue with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all concerned parties and ethnic groups in order to achieve an inclusive national reconciliation with the support of the United Nations."

Security forces arrested Aung San Suu Kyi, who leads the National League for Democracy (NLD), and two aides on 14 May and took them to Insein Prison, where they were charged by a special court. They are said to have been charged with violating the terms of her house arrest, after an uninvited United States citizen gained access to their home, and her trial is currently under way.

Last week, High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said that "her continued detention, and now this latest trial, breach international standards of due process and fair trial."

It had been hoped that she would be released when her current detention order, which has already continued for one year longer than the maximum of five years permitted under Myanmar's laws, expires at the end of this month.

"The Myanmar authorities might claim Aung San Suu Kyi has breached the conditions of her detention, but they have broken both their own laws and their international human rights obligations," Ms. Pillay said. "She should not be detained in the first place."

She has spent over 12 years under house arrest. On 30 May 2003, she was re-arrested under a law which states that a person "suspected of having committed or believed to be about to commit, any act which endangers the sovereignty and security of the state" can be detained.

In May 2007, the Government extended her arrest for another year, bringing her detention to the five-year limit, and her detention was prolonged for sixth year last May.
________________

The lady's not for turning

By David Scott Mathieson

May 19, 2009

Published in the New Statesman

Aung San Suu Kyi rarely receives visitors. Apart from the regular visits by her doctor and Special Branch police officers, there is only the occasional United Nations envoy, and on a rainy day in September 2007, hundreds of Buddhist monks who walked to her house chanting prayers in her honour before leading the biggest uprising in Burma since 1988.

Suu Kyi's latest visitor came uninvited and, unwittingly, cast her from seclusion back into the center of Burma's long drawn out political drama. An American called John William Yettaw swam across Inya Lake in Rangoon, spending two days as an unwelcome house guest with Suu Kyi. Authorities arrested Yettaw on his return journey on May 6. This bizarre incident became the pretext for the ruling military government to file charges against Suu Kyi for breaching conditions of her house arrest order, in force since 2003.

On May 14 Burmese authorities arrested the pro-democracy leader and 1991 Nobel Peace prize winner, along with her two maids. They are currently detaining the three in Rangoon's squalid Insein prison. On May 18, she went on trial and faces a potential prison term of three to five years, even though many Burmese expected her house arrest to be extended for another year anyway. International condemnation was immediate and widespread, including from some of Burma's southeast Asian neighbors and usual protectors.

Burmese authorities last detained Suu Kyi in Insein Prison in May 2003, after a pro-government mob attacked her motorcade in Depayin in upper Burma. Scores of Suu Kyi's supporters were killed in what was clearly a ham-fisted attempt to murder her. After several weeks in Insein prison, authorities sent Su Kyi to her Rangoon home where she has remained in isolation for the last six years.

Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), has been eviscerated by government repression --offices closed, members forced to resign, many thrown in prison or forced into exile, only the old leaders, the 'uncles' allowed to speak to the outside world. Burma's prisons hold more than 2,100 political activists, a cross section of society incarcerated as an example to deter broader dissent.

The military government continues to deny the NLD freedom to function as a normal opposition. Widespread scepticism is the attitude towards elections that are scheduled for 2010 as part of a tightly scripted sham political process - the generals' 'Road Map to Disciplined Democracy.' But what role does 'The Lady', as she is popularly referred to, have in this sham process of reform designed to ensure future military rule with a civilian veil?

The question of Aung San Suu Kyi's relevance to Burma's political future has been clearly answered by the military government's latest move. If the generals did not think she still embodied a challenge to their rule, they would have released her long ago. Suu Kyi's remains the symbol of defiance to a rotten system of military rule.

The generals aren't the only ones impatient with her principles. Lately, some diplomats, aid workers and journalists have criticized Su Kyi's 'hard-line' approach and lack of compromise in dealing with the generals, and bemoan her support of Western sanctions. But sanctions are hardly to blame for the paranoia and xenophobia of Burma's generals and socio-economic atrophy. Burma's dire poverty is a direct result of four decades of military rule, political instability, and economic mismanagement. It cannot be blamed on a woman held in isolation for 14 of the past 20 years.

Su Kyi's unflinching commitment to peaceful change and rights for all in Burma explains her popularity inside and outside the country and fuels the military's enmity against her. The generals have proved once again Suu Kyi's pivotal personification of freedom in Burma. The military government can go through the motions of legal proceedings, but it only shows their mendacity, and boosts her popularity. Burma's rulers should set her free, and start learning from her example.

UN RIGHTS CHIEF CALLS FOR AUNG SAN SUU KYI’S IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UN RIGHTS CHIEF CALLS FOR AUNG SAN SUU KYI'S IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New York, May 15 2009 2:00PM
Calling on Myanmar's Government to drop all charges against pro-democracy leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the top United Nations human rights official today <"http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/E75E3FB7591BA2FBC12575B7004CA9A7?opendocument">appealed to authorities for her immediate and unconditional release.

According to reports, Ms. Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for several years, and two aides were escorted yesterday morning by security forces to Insein Prison, where they were charged by a special court. They are said to have been charged with violating the terms of her house arrest, after an uninvited United States citizen gained access to their home.

Ms. Suu Kyi, who leads the National League for Democracy (NLD), and her two aides are currently detained in the Insein compound and her trial has been scheduled for 18 May.

"Her continued detention, and now this latest trial, breach international standards of due process and fair trial," High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said.

It had been hoped that the Nobel Peace Prize winner would be released when her current detention order, which has already continued for one year longer than the maximum of five years permitted under Myanmar's laws, expires at the end of this month.

"The Myanmar authorities might claim Aung San Suu Kyi has breached the conditions of her detention, but they have broken both their own laws and their international human rights obligations," Ms. Pillay stressed. "She should not be detained in the first place."

Ms. Suu Kyi has spent over 12 years under house arrest. On 30 May 2003, she was re-arrested under a law which states that a person "suspected of having committed or believed to be about to commit, any act which endangers the sovereignty and security of the state" can be detained.

In May 2007, the Government extended her arrest for another year, bringing her detention to the five-year limit, and her detention was prolonged for sixth year last May.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention and guarantees the right to fair trial and to freedom of opinion and expression, which, according to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Suu Kyi has exercised peacefully and courageously over many years.

Yesterday, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that he is "gravely concerned" about the news of her detention.

"The Secretary-General believes that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is an essential partner for dialogue in Myanmar's national reconciliation and calls on the Government not to take any further action that could undermine this important process," according to a <"http://www.un.org/apps/sg/sgstats.asp?nid=3848">statement issued by his spokesperson.

Ms. Suu Kyi and all those who have a contribution to make to the future of their country "must be free to be able to do so to ensure that the political process is credible," the statement added.

Also yesterday, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar Tomás Ojea Quintana, who reports to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, called for her unconditional release.

"Since her house is well guarded by security forces, the responsibility for preventing such intrusions, and alerting the authorities, lies with the security forces and not with Aung San Suu Kyi and her aides," he said.
________________

For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news

To change your profile or unsubscribe go to:
http://www.un.org/news/dh/latest/subscribe.shtml