Burma lambasted over Suu Chi’s incarceration
Despite mounting diplomatic pressure, Burma’s, also known as Myanmar, pro-democracy figurehead Aung San Suu Chi spent her 58th birthday on Thursday incarcerated in Yangon’s inhospitable Insein prison.
Burma’s military leadership refuses to budge on her release, despite overtures from America and Britain.
Its government blames the Nobel pace laureate for inspiring violent disturbances in the country.
The reclusive military junta took Suu Chi and 19 members of her National League for Democracy movement into ‘protective custody’ on May 30.
Foreign Office Minister Mike O’Brien failed in an attempt to phone her.
In a statement he said: ‘I am appalled to learn that Suu Kyi is being held in the notorious Insein Jail on the outskirts of Rangoon in a two-room hut.
‘I understand that she continues to wear the clothes in which she was arrested.
‘I am particularly disturbed to hear that Suu Kyi is being held under Section 10(a) of the 1975 State Protection Law.
‘This is the most draconian of the Burmese military regime’s laws, which allows for detention without access to family or lawyers for 180 days at a time up to a total of five years, with no prospect of appeal.
‘This completely discredits the regime’s claim that she is being held in `protective custody’.’
Officials at the ASEAN meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia demanded of Burma’s foreign minister assurances that her liberation was imminent.
Foreign Minister Win Aung said her detention was not long term.
He told a news conference: ‘We are not a brutal country. If we were brutal, there would be signs of brutality all across the country.’
