Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been allowed to meet her lawyer for the first time after five years under house arrest, opposition sources have said.
Suu Kyi met with her lawyer Kyi Win Friday at her residence in Yangon, where she has been detained since May 2003, said National League for Democracy (NLD) spokesman Nyan Win Sunday.
'Authorities allowed her lawyer U Kyi Win to visit her house on Aug 8 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.,' Nyan Win, NLD's spokesman said in a telephone interview.
Suu Kyi, who heads the NLD party that won the 1990 general election, has been kept in near complete isolation since May 30, 2003, when she was charged with disturbing the peace by campaigning in the provinces.
The detention followed an attack by pro-military thugs on Suu Kyi's convoy in Tepeyin, Sagaing division in northern Myanmar. Several of her followers were killed in the melee.
Under Myanmar emergency law political prisoners can only be kept under detention for a maximum of five years on charges of disturbing the peace but Suu Kyi's detention was last May extended for another six months, raising legal questions.
Myanmar's ruling junta has been sending mixed signals about the duration of Suu Kyi's incarceration.
There have been hints that she may be released within six months, but many observers believe it is unlikely that she will be released before the next general election slated for 2010.
Suu Kyi's NLD party won the 1990 polls by a landslide, but the party has been denied power by the military for 18 years and she has been kept under house arrest for around 13 of the past 18 years.
Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962. Ironically, it was Suu Kyi's father, Aung San, who fathered the military establishment as part of the country's independence movement from its former colonial master Britain.
Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, is deemed Myanmar's democracy icon, and one of the few opposition leaders with enough popular and international support to undermine the military's monopoly of political power in the south-east Asian nation.
Suu Kyi met with her lawyer Kyi Win Friday at her residence in Yangon, where she has been detained since May 2003, said National League for Democracy (NLD) spokesman Nyan Win Sunday.
'Authorities allowed her lawyer U Kyi Win to visit her house on Aug 8 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.,' Nyan Win, NLD's spokesman said in a telephone interview.
Suu Kyi, who heads the NLD party that won the 1990 general election, has been kept in near complete isolation since May 30, 2003, when she was charged with disturbing the peace by campaigning in the provinces.
The detention followed an attack by pro-military thugs on Suu Kyi's convoy in Tepeyin, Sagaing division in northern Myanmar. Several of her followers were killed in the melee.
Under Myanmar emergency law political prisoners can only be kept under detention for a maximum of five years on charges of disturbing the peace but Suu Kyi's detention was last May extended for another six months, raising legal questions.
Myanmar's ruling junta has been sending mixed signals about the duration of Suu Kyi's incarceration.
There have been hints that she may be released within six months, but many observers believe it is unlikely that she will be released before the next general election slated for 2010.
Suu Kyi's NLD party won the 1990 polls by a landslide, but the party has been denied power by the military for 18 years and she has been kept under house arrest for around 13 of the past 18 years.
Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962. Ironically, it was Suu Kyi's father, Aung San, who fathered the military establishment as part of the country's independence movement from its former colonial master Britain.
Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, is deemed Myanmar's democracy icon, and one of the few opposition leaders with enough popular and international support to undermine the military's monopoly of political power in the south-east Asian nation.
Justice for Myanmar
The leading groups are on record as calling for the United Nations Security Council to refer Myanmar to the International Criminal Court and end the impunity given Senior Gen. Than Shwe and his criminal cabal.
These groups include the International Burmese Monks Organization, 88 Generation Students, the Women’s League of Burma, the National Coalition for the Union of Burma and the legal arm of the exile movement, the Burma Lawyers’ Council, in partnership with the Global Justice Center.
A March 25, 1990, editorial in The Times said, “Behind closed doors, Myanmar’s military rulers are committing monstrous deeds.”
Eighteen years later, these monstrous deeds — rape, torture, detention, murder and terror — have become official state policy.
Those of us in 88 Generation Students, many of whom were tortured and imprisoned, urge the United States to first and foremost support the rule of law and criminal accountability.
The people of Burma have the same rights to justice as victims in Cambodia, Sudan, Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
These groups include the International Burmese Monks Organization, 88 Generation Students, the Women’s League of Burma, the National Coalition for the Union of Burma and the legal arm of the exile movement, the Burma Lawyers’ Council, in partnership with the Global Justice Center.
A March 25, 1990, editorial in The Times said, “Behind closed doors, Myanmar’s military rulers are committing monstrous deeds.”
Eighteen years later, these monstrous deeds — rape, torture, detention, murder and terror — have become official state policy.
Those of us in 88 Generation Students, many of whom were tortured and imprisoned, urge the United States to first and foremost support the rule of law and criminal accountability.
The people of Burma have the same rights to justice as victims in Cambodia, Sudan, Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
Htun Aung Gyaw
New York, Aug. 7, 2008
The writer is a spokesman for 88 Generation Students in exile. The group is made up of former student leaders who led an uprising against military rule in Myanmar in 1988.
New York, Aug. 7, 2008
The writer is a spokesman for 88 Generation Students in exile. The group is made up of former student leaders who led an uprising against military rule in Myanmar in 1988.
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