Suu Kyi party leaders skeptical on November release reports

Reports that a top Myanmar leader has been quoted as saying detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi would be released in November, when her house arrest ends, have only lowered hopes of human rights’ activists all over the world that she might be freed ahead of the elections.

Nyan Win, a spokesman for her National League for Democracy party, felt the comment purportedly made last week by Home Minister Maj. Gen. Maung Oo was "nothing new or extraordinary." The release could come probably a month after many observers expect Myanmar to hold its first parliamentary elections in two decades. "If the media reports were correct, hopes for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's earlier release under the executive order were dashed," said Nyan Win, who is also a lawyer for the 64-year-old Suu Kyi. "Daw" is a term of respect used for older women in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

Senior NLD official Khin Maung Swe emphasized it was crucial Suu Kyi was released before the election. "The most important thing is they must be freed in good time so that they can work for national reconciliation," he said.

Home Minister Maung Oo also said 82-year-old NLD vice-chairman Tin Oo, a former defence minister and retired general, would be released on Feb. 13 after 10 years in detention.

News reports on U.S.-government backed Radio Free Asia and elsewhere cited witnesses as saying Maung Oo in a Jan. 21 speech declared Suu Kyi would be freed in November. The reports said he spoke at a meeting of several hundred officials in Kyaukpadaung, a town about 560 kilometers north of Yangon. Maung Oo was also quoted as saying the elections would be "free and fair." The minister said the government would pursue an international-style market economy after holding "free and fair" elections, including loosening restrictions on car imports. "We are not a power crazy government," he was quoted as telling the meeting in Kyaukpadaung. "The election will be held in 2010 without fail. I promise the election will be free and fair, there will be no cheating."

Suu Kyi's party and pro-democracy activists have complained the constitution that established the polls was undemocratic and unfair. It includes provisions that bar the democracy icon from holding office and ensure the military a controlling stake in government. Suu Kyi's party has not yet decided whether to take part in the election.

Suu Kyi has been detained for 14 of the past 20 years. She was sentenced last August to 18 months' house arrest, with three months in detention awaiting the end of the trial counted toward the total. The National League for Democracy party swept the last elections in 1990, but the results were never honored by the military, which has ruled the country since 1962.

Suu Kyi was sentenced to 18 additional months of house arrest in May 2009 after American John Yettaw sneaked uninvited into her house, prompting her to be tried on charges of government subversion. The 64-year-old had told a Myanmar court that she didn't know Yettaw, was unaware of his plans to visit and didn't report his intrusion because she didn't want him to get into trouble. She was sentenced to additional home confinement after being found guilty of violating the terms of her house arrest.

Suu Kyi has appealed her sentence to Myanmar's Supreme Court in Yangon, which will decide within a month whether to proceed with the case.

The military junta has not set a date for the vote but has promised U.S. President Barack Obama and Southeast Asian leaders the vote would be free, fair and inclusive. In recent months Suu Kyi has been allowed to meet the junta's liaison officer and foreign diplomats.

The United States and others are reviewing policy towards the former Burma after years of sanctions and trade embargoes failed to get the junta to improve its human rights record or relax its grip on power. Obama has offered Myanmar the prospect of better ties with Washington if it pursued democratic reform and freed political prisoners, including Suu Kyi.

In a report released last week, Human Rights Watch said the new constitution, promulgated in 2008, "entrenches military rule and limits the role of independent political parties". Attacks on ethnic groups had not ceased and intimidation of political and human rights activists had increased, it said

- Asian Tribune -