Suu Kyi doubts credibility of upcoming elections

Myanmar's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi says that the military-run country's upcoming elections cannot be credible unless the government allows freedom of information, her party said on Wednesday.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate — who is serving a new 18-month sentence of house arrest — also said she hasn't decided whether her party will contest this year's planned polls, said Nyan Win, her lawyer and spokesman for her National League for Democracy party.

"Aung San Suu Kyi said if freedom of information and freedom of expression are not allowed, the elections will neither be free nor fair nor credible," said Nyan Win, who met Suu Kyi at her house Tuesday.

Myanmar's military government has said it will hold a general election this year, but has not yet set an exact date or passed the necessary laws. Suu Kyi's party won the last election in 1990, but the military refused to allow it to take power. The junta tightly controls information in the impoverished Southeast Asian country.

An election boycott by the NLD would deal a blow to the government's promotion of the polls as part of a "roadmap to democracy."

Suu Kyi's party has not yet committed itself to taking part in the polls because it claims the new constitution of 2008 is unfair. It has clauses that would ensure that the military remains the controlling power in government, and would bar Suu Kyi from holding office.

Nyan Win said Wednesday that Suu Kyi said she cannot decide whether her party should take part in elections as long as she is under house arrest. "Aung San Suu Kyi said she is in no condition to decide whether the NLD should participate in the elections or not as she cannot follow up on her decision if she remains detained," said Nyan Win.

Suu Kyi's position does not necessarily rule out her party taking part in the polls, since other party officials could make the decision to contest the election. Nyan Win pointed out that that in 1990 elections, which also were held while she was under house arrest, the National League for Democracy decided to take part in elections during her absence and she supported the party's decision.

According to Nyan Win, Suu Kyi also said the international community should understand that the elections in Myanmar cannot be considered as similar to those in other countries "as everything has to start from scratch," without any new parties being approved yet and her own party not yet allowed to reopen its district offices. Suu Kyi has been detained for 14 of the past 20 years.

Meanwhile, a Myanmar court on Wednesday sentenced a US citizen to three years in prison for fraud and forgery, his lawyer told AFP, despite calls by 50 US lawmakers for his release. Rights activist Kyaw Zaw Lwin, also known as Nyi Nyi Aung, was sentenced to three years in jail for forging an identity card, one year for failing to declare currency at customs and one year for violating immigration law.

"He has to serve the prison terms concurrently," said his lawyer Nyan Win, who also represents the country's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Washington DC-based rights group Freedom Now immediately condemned the verdict. "Nyi Nyi Aung has been illegally and unjustly convicted on sham charges because of his tireless advocacy for democracy and human rights in Burma," the group's president Jared Genser said in a statement, using the country's former name.

The group called on the US government to make the activist's release a priority, amid a faltering rapprochement in its relations with the Myanmar regime. New York-based Human Rights watch has also called for his release and said the charges -- which Kyaw Zaw Lwin denied -- were "trumped-up" by the regime in Myanmar.

- Asian Tribune -