 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||
 |
||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
||||||||
The Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines joins the international appeal to Senior General Than Shwe and the ruling military junta of Myanmar for the release of democratic icon Aung San Suu Kyi and to fulfill their promise of free and democratic governance of the Burmese people.
With the impending elections next year, billed by the junta as the first of the "12 Steps to Democracy", the looming extension on Suu Kyi's detention sends a dismaying signal to the ASEAN and the global international community, indicating a lack of sincerity of its leadership to completely fulfill democratic reforms in Myanmar .
With the end of Suu Kyi's house arrest on May 27 so agonizingly close, the decision to detain her further at the notorious Insein prison facility speaks of a heavy-handed junta policy aimed at squelching the very people who could help pave the way to a fully functioning democracy in Myanmar . This latest development is a step backwards and incongruous with the junta's 12 Steps to Democracy.
With a Constitution set in place, ratified by the Burmese people by referendum, and elections scheduled for next year, now is not the time for the Burmese leadership to tread backwards into a long history notorious for human rights violations. Now is not the time to retain a policy of such profoundly inequitable treatment of pro-democracy advocates, especially when democratic reform is so impossibly close to fruition.
While the full details of the latest charge leveled against Suu Kyi remain sketchy, it is almost certain that a renewed detention that could extend to beyond the elections of 2010 will work to the detriment of free and unimpeded suffrage. The continued, politically-motivated imprisonment of pro-democracy advocates such as Aung San Suu Kyi is incompatible with democratic elections, and casts doubts on the freedom of next year's elections.
In behalf of the human rights community of the Philippines, and as a member of the alliance of National Human Rights Institutions among the free and democratic nations of the ASEAN, we urge the Burmese leadership to heed the call of their Southeast Asian neighbors, and the international communty, to take the necessary steps in transforming Myanmar into the latest, free and democratic nation in the international community, beginning with release of Aung San Suu Kyi.