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.