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.