Myanmar in hot water as Suu Kyi's birthday nears

Myanmar in hot water as Suu Kyi's birthday nears

Agencies, United Nations/Kuala Lumpur/Brussels

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi should be out promoting democracy and not under house arrest when she celebrates her 60th birthday this Sunday, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Thursday.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has spent nine of the last 16 years behind bars or under house arrest for campaigning against the military junta that has ruled the reclusive Southeast Asian nation since 1962.

The leaders of the country formerly known as Burma refused to hand over power after Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a 1990 election.

"It is unfortunate that she is celebrating under circumstances that one would not have wished for her, a leader of her party, and I wish she were out amongst the people and her supporters, pushing for stability and democracy and democratization of her society," Annan told reporters.

He urged Myanmar's leader, Gen. Than Shwe, "to release her and let her join her party and join the process of national dialogue and national reconciliation."

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack issued a statement demanding the immediate and unconditional release of Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners.

"The United States looks forward to the day when Aung San Suu Kyi can celebrate her birthday in a democratic and free Burma," he said.

At the U.S. Senate, 200 Myanmar exiles and activists marked Suu Kyi's birthday with a reception featuring messages of solidarity from fellow Nobel laureates and leaders of states which recently overcame authoritarian rule.

"It is a travesty that you are not free, that others in your country are afraid of democracy, afraid of the will of people and afraid of you," said South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu in a video message to the Senate gathering.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate's No. 2 Republican, vowed to renew legislation maintaining sanctions against Myanmar.

In Kuala Lumpur, former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Friday suggested giving Myanmar's military rulers immunity from persecution if they step down, saying that was the simplest way to democratic reforms in the Southeast Asian country.

Mahathir told reporters that Myanmar's leaders should also consider public opinion at home and abroad and release Suu Kyi.

"There is nothing they have to lose" by releasing Suu Kyi, said Mahathir, who was instrumental in bringing Myanmar into the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a 10-country grouping. "It will make things easier for everyone."

Officials, former leaders and prominent organizations in Europe added their voices on Friday to a call for Suu Kyi's release.

Norway's Nobel Committee, which gave Suu Kyi the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, called attention to her plight and called for her to be freed.

"We ask that she be set free immediately," the chairman of the committee, Ole Mjoes, said in a statement dated June 19 marking Suu Kyi's 60th birthday on Sunday. "Suu Kyi's struggle is one of the most extraordinary examples of civil courage in Asia in recent decades."

The committee "wishes to congratulate her on this day and to express our admiration for the courageous way in which she is fighting for democracy and human rights" in Myanmar, he said.

Supporters are planning protests around the world to mark her birthday on Sunday, demonstrating outside Myanmar's embassies in a dozen countries to demand her release.

A letter signed by former prime ministers Lionel Jospin of France, Felipe Gonzalez of Spain, and Jean-Luc Dehaene and Pierre Harmel, both of Belgium, as well as former European Commission president Jacques Delors, was made public on Friday calling on the European Union and UN to be tougher with Myanmar over Suu Kyi's detention.

The government in Yangon has promised to bring the country back to democracy through reforms including freeing political dissidents and drafting a new constitution.

But there have been no concrete signs of change.

While the authorities have convened a constitution-writing National Convention as part of a promised seven-step "road map to democracy," Suu Kyi's party and others have not been allowed to participate.