12 August 2009

International outrage at new Aung San Suu Kyi verdict

Yesterday, ailing Nobel Peace Prize laureate and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to 18 more months of house arrest by a kangaroo court in Myanmar (aka Burma).

Suu Kyi has spent 14 of the past 20 years in some form of detention, mostly under house arrest. This time around, she was convicted of breaching the terms of her previous detention when she received an uninvited American visitor at her home.

Amnesty International has declared Suu Kyi a prisoner of conscience, and seeks her unconditional release.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stated that he is "deeply disappointed" in yesterday's verdict, and has also called for her immediate and unconditional release.

Ditto Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Human Rights Watch said yesterday's "politically motivated guilty verdict" was a "reprehensible abuse of power by Burma's military government." Human Rights Watch called on Burma's allies and other governments to condemn the verdict, demand Suu Kyi's immediate and unconditional release, and impose additional targeted sanctions against the military leadership.

Will all this international pressure make a difference? Time will tell. Fingers crossed.

But, if the sentence holds, her ongoing detention will ensure that Suu Kyi is out of the way for next year's Burmese elections.

And that, I suppose, is what the ruling junta really wants.

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