FREEDOM NOW DEMANDS THE RELEASE OF BURMESE
DEMOCRACY LEADER AUNG SAN SUU KYI
UNDER BURMESE LAW, SHE MUST BE RELEASED FROM HOUSE ARREST
IN RANGOON AT MIDNIGHT, THE BEGINNING OF SUNDAY MAY 25, 2008
Washington, D.C. – Today, Freedom Now has demanded the release of the
world’s only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi of
Burma. Retained in 2006 by a member of her family, Freedom Now attorneys
Jared Genser and Meghan Barron successfully obtained Opinion No. 2/2007 on
May 8, 2007 from the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention that Ms. Suu
Kyi’s ongoing detention under house arrest was a clear violation of
international law and engaged in other advocacy activities on her behalf. As
explained in the enclosed legal memorandum, her ordeal should be coming to
an end.
Under Article 10(b) of Burma’s State Protection Law 1975, a person in Burma
who is deemed a “threat to the sovereignty and security of the State and the
peace of the people” may be detained for up to a maximum of five years
through a restrictive order, renewable one year at a time. Initially detained
after the Depayin massacre in May 2003, Ms. Suu Kyi’s house arrest was last
extended on May 25, 2007. Therefore, her fifth and final year of house arrest
allowable under Burmese law (though found to be in violation of international
law) will expire at the end of the day on May 24, 2008.
“The timing couldn’t be better,” remarked Freedom Now President Jared
Genser. “If the Burmese junta abides by its own law, Aung San Suu Kyi will
be able to attend the international aid conference scheduled for Sunday May
25th in person. And if General Than Shwe refuses to release her, it will be a
slap in the face to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the ASEAN
diplomats who will be on hand to hear the junta’s request for $11 billion of
international assistance,” he added.
Previously, the Working Group issued three other opinions – 8/1992, 2/2002,
and 9/2004 – that Ms. Suu Kyi’s prior terms of house arrest were also in
violation of international law. After Ms. Suu Kyi’s political party and its allies
won the 1990 parliamentary elections in Burma with more than 80% of the
vote, she has spent more than 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest, and
continuously since May 2003.
