22 May 2009
Media Statement

Labour calls for immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi

Labour calls on the military regime running Burma to release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winning leader of Burma's National League for Democracy and the properly elected leader of Burma.

"Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was elected in 1990 by the Burmese people but has never been allowed to take up her rightful position," said Labour MP Maryan Street at a vigil held in the University of Auckland quad on Friday.

"For most of the last 19 years, Aung San Suu Kyi has been illegally detained under house arrest by the military junta," said Maryan Street.

"At present she is on trial at the infamous Insein Prison in Rangoon because an American passport holder swam across the lake adjacent to her house where she is kept in isolation. That 'visit' breached the conditions of her detention according to the junta.

"This is simply a pretext by which the military regime will try to extend the period of her detention. The anniversary of her detention is next Wednesday and the authorities will have no reason to hold her beyond that date.

“This is just the kind of trumped up pretext they need to extend her imprisonment.

"Labour joins with the Government and all the international voices calling for the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the other 1100 political prisoners held illegally in prisons and camps around Burma.

Burma needs to make real progress towards democracy, not the entrenching of military rule. Only the release of Suu Kyi and the other political prisoners will ensure that democracy can be restored to Burma," said Maryan Street.

ENDS

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