Mega tells Yangon to clarify Suu Kyi's status

Mega tells Yangon to clarify Suu Kyi's status

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post,
Tripoli/Jakarta

President Megawati Soekarnoputri urged the Myanmar government on
Saturday to make clear immediately its plans regarding
prodemocracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi -- whether it plans to keep
her under permanent house arrest or to release her.

Megawati, who also chairs the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN), said the plan must be spelled out immediately
before the ASEAN Summit in Bali next month to prevent the issue
from casting a shadow over the event.

"The Myanmar government should state specifically whether it
will keep Suu Kyi under house arrest or free her immediately. The
road map over whether it will free Suu Kyi should be made clear,"
said Megawati, who was speaking during a visit to Tripoli, where
she held talks with Libyan leader Moammar Qadaffi.

Suu Kyi was put under house arrest by the Myanmar junta after
she was discharged from hospital on Friday following an operation
last week.

The move to place her under house arrest was considered a
positive development. She spent four months in detention at a
secret location prior to her being admitted to the hospital on
Sept. 17.

Suu Kyi has been under house arrest twice before, the first
time for six years from 1989 to 1995, while the second one ended
in May 2002.

She was arrested again on May 30 this year, after a clash
between her supporters and a pro-military junta gang.

Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Marty
Natalegawa said separately that Indonesia welcomed the new
developments regarding Suu Kyi, and hoped that the Myanmar junta
would release her before the ASEAN Summit.

"Her transfer back to her own home is not an insignificant
development," said Marty as quoted by AFP.

The Indonesian government, which is concerned that the issue
might disrupt the ASEAN Summit, sent former minister of foreign
affairs Ali Alatas to Yangon last week to persuade Myanmar to
release Suu Kyi.

After arriving in Jakarta, Alatas said that he had not
received any commitments from the Myanmar junta regarding Suu
Kyi's release, but he was told that the restrictions on her were
temporary in nature.

Besides Indonesia, another prominent member of ASEAN,
Thailand, also praised the recent developments in Myanmar, saying
that the decision to place Suu Kyi under house arrest should not
be ignored.

"Allowing Aung San Suu Kyi to return home is a step in the
right direction for democracy, which involves listening to the
opinion of various sides," said Thai government spokesman Sita
Divari.

Meanwhile, the United States took a harder stance over the
status of Suu Kyi, saying that the prodemocracy leader should
have been freed without any conditions after the medical
treatment.

"We remain concerned about her situation as well as those of
other political prisoners currently under detention and we
reiterate our calls for the junta to immediately lift all
restrictions on her and to release all other political
prisoners," U.S. deputy spokesman Adam Ereli was quoted as saying
by AFP.

In Yangon, Suu Kyi spent the first day under house arrest in
her famous lakeside villa accompanied by two doctors. The scene
at the University Drive residence was quiet on Saturday, with
military intelligence agents and barbed-wire barricades blocking
the road off to non-residents.

"Only people with a pass are allowed into this area," a
plainclothes security officer told Reuters here.