During her speech, at the State Department on the occasion of Women’s History Month on Thursday, Clinton encouraged women globally to draw inspiration from courageous women, including Burmese pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.
“Aung San Suu Kyi, whom I mentioned yesterday and I mention as often as I can, because having been in prison now for most of the past two decades, she still remains a beacon of hope, strength and liberty for people around the world,” Clinton said.
In her remarks on Wednesday, during International Women’s Day celebrations, Clinton also expressed solidarity with Aung San Suu Kyi and other Burmese women, who are prisoners of conscience.
Clinton said that she expressed her solidarity with “…especially Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been kept under house arrest in Burma, for most of the past two decades, but continues to be a beacon of hope and strength to people around the world.”
“Her [Aung San Suu Kyi] example has been especially important to other women in Burma, who have been imprisoned for their political beliefs, driven into exile, or subjected to sexual violence by the military,” Clinton added.
Clinton, as much as successive US governments, has time and again called on Burma’s military junta to release political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and kick-start an all inclusive and meaningful political dialogue.
The United States has also called on the junta to improve human rights conditions in the country, and as punishment for the junta’s failure has imposed strict economic sanctions on Burma.
Meanwhile, with critics pointing out the ineffectiveness of sanctions to induce desired behavioural change in the Burmese Junta, Clinton, during her first trip to Asia, since she took office in January, hinted that the US was reviewing its policy.
Burma’s ruling junta, who are poised with plans for a general election slated for 2010, said it was steadily implementing a seven-step roadmap to democracy.
Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy party won a landslide victory in the 1990 general elections, has so far made no comment on their participation in the upcoming general elections, which is the fifth step of the junta roadmap.
In the past, Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD have time and again called for a dialogue with the government.
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**************We Will Boycott Election: CRPP ************************************
“The release of political prisoners is the first step toward democracy,” he said. “The second is to allow for a review of the new constitution. If not, we will not be involved in the election.”
The announcement came after a meeting was held in Rangoon on Thursday between representatives of the five political parties that comprise the CRPP coalition: the National League for Democracy (NLD), the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, the Mon National League for Democracy, the Arakan League for Democracy, and Zomi National Congress.
Between them, the five parties took 89 percent of the electoral votes at the 1990 general election—some 433 of the parliament’s 485 seats—with the NLD winning a landslide victory.
However, the elected representatives were never allowed to take power and many of their members were subsequently arrested and imprisoned by the military junta.
Despite the announcement, Nyan Win, a spokesperson for the NLD, refused to comment to The Irrawaddy on Friday about the CRPP decision or the 2010 election.
The NLD has previously called on the Burmese military regime to review the new constitution and release all political prisoners, including its general secretary, Aung San Suu Kyi.
At the 14th Asean Summit in Thailand last month, Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein reportedly promised that Burma would allow United Nations to monitor the 2010 election, a date for which still has not been announced.
But Aye Thar Aung said that allowing the international community to monitor next year’s general election is not as important a factor as the need to review the new constitution.
“It is simply unacceptable that the military will reserve 25 percent of seats in the parliament for itself according to the new constitution,” he said.
He added that the CRPP seeks meaning dialogue between the military junta and the opposition groups for the future of democracy in Burma.
Some leaders of political parties within the CRPP are still in detention, including Suu Kyi and Tin Oo of the NLD, and ethnic Shan leader Hkun Htun Oo.
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