Support for Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has stepped up with about 100 more parliamentarians from Southeast Asian countries adding their voices to the growing international calls for her release.
Two Members of Parliament (MPs) from Singapore, Charles Chong and Inderjit Singh, on Friday called for the suspension of Burma from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) due to the Burmese junta’s disregard for Asean’s concerns over Suu Kyi.
Asean diplomat sources confirmed to The Irrawaddy that leading members of the regional bloc such as Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines are seriously considering suspending Burma’s membership if the junta extends Suu Kyi’s detention or sentences her to prison on trumped-up charges.
In Malaysia, 30 MPs on Tuesday joined half a million other signatories on a petition organized by an umbrella group called “Free Burma’s Political Prisoners Now!” Among the politicians was Malaysian opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
“Before May 26, only three MPs had signed the petition calling for the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and more than 2,100 political prisoners in Burma,” said Ye Min Htun, a Burmese activist based in Kuala Lumpur. “But now, 30 MPs have joined the campaign. I am very surprised.”
************"We are Facing a Crisis of Constitution,” Suu Kyi Tells Lawyer **********
Burmese pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi privately told him that the charges against her are invalid as she was charged under the 1975 State Security law, which was annulled by the 2008 constitution.
“We are facing a crisis of constitution, not a constitutional crisis,” she reportedly told him on Thursday.
The lawyer said that Suu Kyi was referring to a 1975 law enacted under the 1974 constitution, which became invalidated when the military seized power in 1988. In addition, under the junta’s “seven-step road map,” the country approved a new constitution in May 2008 by national referendum, which would also invalidate the 1975 act.
Defense witness Kyi Win (no relation to Suu Kyi’s lawyer Kyi Win) echoed Suu Kyi’s sentiments in the courtroom on Thursday, testifying that if the 1974 constitution was still in effect, then the existing constitution was “null and void,” according to a report in the state-run The New Light of Myanmar on Friday.
“The government has just done whatever they wanted,” he said. “In fact, if they want to do something regarding the trial, they must inform us.”
Yettaw reportedly confessed to the court that he accepted that he had broken Burmese immigration law and the law of Rangoon City Development Committee by secretly entering Suu Kyi’s residence at night without asking permission, even though he knew that the house was guarded by security members, the New Light of Myanmar reported
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