15 August 2009
Human
Rights Now protests the unjust sentence for Aung San Suu Kyi, and call
for the immediate and unconditional release of her and other political
prisoners and the initiation of a dialogue with them.
On August 11th, the Myanmar’s military government sentenced Myanmar’s democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, to a three-year prison term.
However, shortly after that, the government ordered her to serve out a further 18 months sentence under house arrest.
Human Rights Now, an international human rights NGO based in Tokyo, strongly protests against the injustice of the sentence. Human Rights Now also demands that Myanmar’s
military government release Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners
immediately and unconditionally, and start the political process
through a dialogue with pro-democracy forces and minority peoples.
Suu
Kyi has been found guilty of breaking the terms of her house arrest for
allowing an uninvited American man to stay at her house in early May.
Her house arrest represents an illegal suppression of democracy and
arbitrary detention without any true grounds. The international
community as a whole has called for her immediate release (United
Nations General Assembly Resolution of January 23rd, 2009). Instead of
responding to the call, and even though Suu Kyi completed her initial
term of house arrest on May 27th, 2008, Myanmar’s
military government declared that they would extend her house arrest
for another year without warrant. The prosecution and conviction of Suu
Kyi for violating the terms of her house arrest have no legitimate
basis.
Myanmar’s
military government must hold a general election in 2010. However, if
Suu Kyi is subjected to criminal prosecution and her house arrest is
continued for a year and half, she will be unable to take part in the
election (The Constitution which the junta forced through in 2008
doesn’t allow a person with a criminal record to run for election). It
became clear that the general election that Myanmar’s military government
has scheduled must exclude Suu Kyi and will therby not be worthy of
being called democracy.
Countries throughout the world have
issued statements condemning the sentence. In a statement on August
12th, Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, urged Myanmar’s
government to “immediately and unconditionally” release Suu Kyi. Ban
also reminded the military government that, “Unless Aung San Suu Kyi
and other political prisoners are released and allowed to participate
in free and fair elections, the credibility of the political process
will remain in doubt.”
It is now time for Myanmar’s military government to take condemnation from the international community seriously.
On August 13th, Myanmar’s pro-democracy forces and ethnic minority groups, which met in Jakarta, Indonesia,
announced a “Proposal for National Reconciliation” and presented a
concurrent proposal toward democracy. They called for the military
junta to initiate the start of a democratization process.
Now is
the time for the international community to make maximum diplomatic
efforts to work on the military junta to further negotiations with
pro-democracy forces and ethnic minority groups, and to realize their
offers to negotiate toward democratization.
The general election in 2010, which Myanmar’s
military government is moving to force through, is approaching.
Material violation of International Human Rights Law and humanitarian
law in Myanmar
is getting more and more serious. The international community,
including the Japanese government, needs to take concerted action,
rather than merely engaging in verbal criticism.