The Burmese pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been found guilty on the 11th August 2009 of violating state security laws, in effect preventing her from campaigning in next year's elections. A court in Rangoon convicted her of breaking the terms of her house arrest when she allowed an American man, John Yettaw, to stay at her home on Inya Lake after he swam there uninvited in May.
Ms Suu Kyi, who had denied the charge, was sentenced to an additional three years house arrest but this was commuted to eighteen months by the military government. There's been strong international condemnation. She has now been returned to her home where she has lived under house arrest for nearly twenty years. Mr Yettaw was found guilty on three separate charges and sentenced to seven years in prison.
Ms Suu Kyi's opposition party, the National League for Democracy, won national elections in 1990 but the military refused to relinquish power. In the general election, Suu Kyi won right to be Prime Minister, as leader of the winning National League for Democracy party, which won 59% of the vote and 394 of 492 seats. Her subsequent detention by the military junta prevented her from assuming office. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 but has been under house arrest for 14 of the past 20 years. Her father, General Aung San, founded the modern Burmese army and negotiated Burma's independence from the United Kingdom in 1947; he was assassinated by his rivals in the same year.
Aung San Suu Kyi aged 2 with her parents
Myanmar's military junta extended Nobel Peace laureate and pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's imprisonment by 18 months after finding her guilty of violating the terms of her house arrest. Critics of Myanmar's military regime condemned the outcome of the 3-month sham trial, calling it a pretext to keep Suu Kyi out of the running during next year's presidential elections.
Aung San Suu Kyi is escorted to a car on the third day of her trial at Yangon's Insein Prison
The trial was held in camera in Insein Prison except for one day when international observers and diplomats were allowed to observe proceedings. As the generals have carried out the trial in secret, deep inside the Yangon prison diplomats were shocked to find themselves suddenly being taken to witness the trial - coming face to face with Suu Kyi for the first time in nearly six years. She called out to diplomats in English, telling them she hoped she would see them again 'in better days'. 'She was ramrod straight, dignified, composed,' British ambassador Mark Canning, who sat in court with 10 other ambassadors, told the Independent. She seemed to crackle with energy - you could see the way she commanded her defence team, and in fact commanded the wider courtroom.' 'She exuded an aura that can only be described as awe-inspiring,' Philippines charge d'affaires Joselito Chad Jacinto added.
The junta — which currently detains more than 2,100 political prisoners — commuted Suu Kyi's sentence from three years hard labour in prison to an 18-month extension to her house arrest in the hopes that the international community will view the reduced sentence as an act of leniency. But Suu Kyi should have never been imprisoned in the first place.
Protester killed in 2007
Suu Kyi's deplorable imprisonment has been denounced by everyone from heads of state worldwide to nine of Suu Kyi's fellow Nobel laureates. Join the court of world opinion in condemning Daw Ang San Suu Kyi's sham trial. Tell the leader of Myanmar's military junta that Suu Kyi shouldn't serve another minute of her sentence.
We know that the odds of success may seem stacked against us any time we appeal to authoritarian rulers. But the recent release of two U.S. journalists from North Korea is proof that even totalitarian regimes are vulnerable to relentless international pressure. The fact that Myanmar's government reduced Suu Kyi's sentence is also a sign that the military regime is susceptible to the world community's criticisms.
Burmese monks protest 2007
It has been proven time after time that even military dictatorships and other repressive regimes are no match for world condemnation lending support to internal democracy campaigners. Just last year, Ma Khin Khin Leh, another prisoner of conscience in Myanmar, obtained her release after Amnesty activists sent tens of thousands of letters to Myanmar's leaders on her behalf.
Join Amnesty today in calling for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's immediate release.
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=12656&ICID=I0908A01&tr=y&auid=5173508
See also;
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/07/amnesty-honours-burmas-suu-kyi.html
This is Aung San Suu Kyi's website;
http://www.dassk.com/index.php
In a famous speech given to the National League for Democracy Suu Kyi brought the concepts of Mahatma Gandhi into clear focus when she said:
“It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it… Fearlessness may be a gift but perhaps more precious is the courage acquired through endeavor, courage that comes from cultivating the habit of refusing to let fear dictate one’s actions, courage that could be described as ‘grace under pressure’ – grace which is renewed repeatedly in the face of harsh, unremitting pressure….
Within a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day. Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure. Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure.
A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man’s self-respect and inherent human dignity.
It is not easy for a people conditioned by fear under the iron rule of the principle that might is right to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. It is not easy for a people conditioned by fear under the iron rule of the principle that might is right to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. Yet even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man.
The wellspring of courage and endurance in the face of unbridled power is generally a firm belief in the sanctity of ethical principles combined with a historical sense that despite all the setbacks condition of man is set on an ultimate course for both spiritual and material advancement. It is his capacity for self-improvement and self-redemption which most distinguishes man from the mere brute.
At the root of human responsibility is the concept of perfection, the urge to achieve it, the intelligence to find a path towards it, and the will to follow that path if not to the end at least the distance needed to rise above individual limitations and environmental impediments.
It is man’s vision of a world fit for rational, civilized humanity which leads him to dare and to suffer to build societies free from want and fear. It is man’s vision of a world fit for rational, civilized humanity which leads him to dare and to suffer to build societies free from want and fear.
Concepts such as truth, justice and compassion cannot be dismissed as trite when these are often the only bulwarks which stand against ruthless power.”
No comments:
Post a Comment