Indonesian envoy: Suu Kyi's detention counterproductive
Indonesian envoy: Suu Kyi's detention counterproductive
Agencies, Yangon
An Indonesian envoy said Wednesday that the detention of Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is "increasingly counterproductive" and could mar regional talks in Bali next month.
Former Indonesian foreign minister Ali Alatas said at the end of a four-day visit to push for Suu Kyi's release that he was unable to see the Nobel Peace Prize winner because of "the circumstances concerning her health."
Suu Kyi, 58, is recuperating after having surgery last week at a private hospital in the Myanmar capital of Yangon. Doctors have declined to specify her condition, but described the operation as "major."
Her private physician, Tin Myo Win, said on Tuesday he was "very happy" with the benign results of a biopsy, but did not elaborate.
"The continued detention of Aung San Suu Kyi is becoming increasingly counterproductive," Alatas told reporters on Wednesday, in unusually blunt language among ASEAN members who have a firm agreement not to interfere in each other's internal affairs.
During his visit, Alatas met Myanmar's top leader, Gen. Than Shwe, and Prime Minister Gen. Khin Nyunt, to deliver letters conveying the concerns of Indonesia and the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Indonesia holds the rotating presidency of ASEAN, which includes Myanmar, and earlier expressed hopes that Suu Kyi would be freed before a meeting of ASEAN leaders next month on Bali island.
"We would like to believe that it is in the interest of ASEAN and Myanmar that no extraneous issue such as the problem of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi would mar the deliberations of ASEAN," Alatas said. Daw is an honorific.
He said the meetings with Than Shwe and Khin Nyunt were "constructive, and I was assured by both leaders that they appreciate the content of the letter and they would carefully consider the views and suggestions."
But the former foreign minister said that despite being told the restrictions on Suu Kyi were temporary, he was not given any time frame for when they would end. "They did not give indications with regard to any timing," he said.
Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested on May 30 and detained at a secret location after violent clashes between her supporters and a pro-junta gang which mounted an ambush on her convoy during a political tour of northern Myanmar.
She was admitted to a private hospital in Yangon last week for major surgery to treat gynaecological and other unspecified conditions and is still recuperating there.
Alatas said he had been expecting to see Suu Kyi but that her illness forced a cancellation.
"With regard to a possible meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi I was given to understand that before my arrival here a meeting was planned as part of the program. But her health condition prevented me from doing so," he said.
Alatas said that the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other senior members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) who remain in custody since the May 30 unrest was vital to Myanmar's stated plans for reform.
Amid intense international pressure for a shift to democracy and mounting sanctions against the military regime, Khin Nyunt last month unveiled a seven-point "roadmap" for change including free and fair elections.
Alatas said the government did not give him any indication of when the roadmap would be implemented but that the leaders said the issue would be "studied in a positive manner".
In Bangkok, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Wednesday that Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai will make a one- day trip to Yangon on Thursday to talk to Myanmar's military rulers about a proposed "road map to democracy".
Surakiart is the second ASEAN envoy to visit Yangon this week.
"He would like to follow up on Thailand's proposed road map to democracy in Myanmar and to ask the generals what sort of support they will need from the friends of Myanmar," the spokesman said.