Myanmar's military government frees Suu Kyi's aide
Myanmar's military government frees Suu Kyi's aide
YANGON (Reuter): Myanmar's military government yesterday
released a top National League for Democracy (NLD) official
detained last week for questioning over a recent student protest,
a family member and NLD sources said.
Kyi Maung, deputy chairman of the NLD and a close advisor to
Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, was picked up by the State
Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) on Oct. 23 for
questioning over his alleged role in the student protest.
"He was returned home at 12.45 p.m. (0615 GMT) today," a
family member said by telephone.
Official confirmation of his release was not immediately
available.
Separately, the government yesterday removed blockades barring
access to the road leading to Suu Kyi's house, witnesses said.
They said the blockades, which were put up last Tuesday, were
removed at around 0700 GMT.
Kyi Maung's detention and a fresh crackdown on Suu Kyi's NLD
by the SLORC sparked widespread condemnation from Western nations
and human rights organizations.
The European Union yesterday imposed strict limits on contacts
with Myanmar officials in response to what the 15-nation bloc
sees as a failure to bring in democracy and end human-rights
abuses.
Diplomats said that EU foreign ministers agreed the new
restrictions without discussion as they began a meeting in
Luxembourg.
The ministers agreed to refuse entry visas to senior members
of Myanmar's military government and their families, and to
senior members of its armed forces and security services viewed
by the EU as impeding the country's transition to democracy.
They also suspended all high-level EU visits to Myanmar.
In a statement, the ministers said the military government had
failed "to demonstrate any willingness to respond to the concerns
of the United Nations General Assembly and the European Union".
Measures
"Further measures may need to be considered," the ministers
warned.
Kyi Maung, 75, was in Yangon's infamous Insein Prison from
1990 to 1995 for his involvement in the democracy movement.
A government official said last week that Kyi Maung was being
held for questioning in a guesthouse to find out if he had
advised two students involved in a protest against the SLORC on
Oct. 23.
Kyi Maung was seen talking to two student leaders the day
before up to 1,000 university students staged the sit-in
demonstration about two kilometers from Suu Kyi's residence, the
official said.
The SLORC accused the NLD, especially Kyi Maung, of colluding
with the students in the protest to foment unrest.
Students involved in last week's demonstration said it was
apolitical, and held to protest the authorities' rough handling
of three students who were briefly arrested following a quarrel
at a restaurant.
A similar scuffle in a tea-shop in 1988 sparked nationwide
outrage against the former military regime, leading to pro-
democracy street demonstrations that left thousands dead or in
jail.
The SLORC had blocked vehicle and pedestrian access to
University Avenue, the road on which Suu Kyi's house is located,
for most of the past month in an effort to stop various meetings
of the NLD from taking place.
Last week the checkpoints, manned by heavily-armed security
police, were set up to prevent Suu Kyi from holding an NLD
meeting at her house, a government official said.
The barricades have also stopped Suu Kyi from giving her
regular weekend speeches to supporters at her front gates for the
past five weekends.
However, NLD sources said on Sunday that Suu Kyi had left her
residence recently and had been able to hold meetings with senior
members of her party at her home.
The NLD won a landslide victory in a 1990 election, but the
SLORC never recognized the results.