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Rumours of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's release spreads in Rangoon
Mizzima News
Saturday, 24 May 2008 15:32
New Delhi - Rumours are doing the rounds in Rangoon that Burma's detained pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was released today from house arrest.
Nyan Win, spokesperson of the National League for Democracy (NLD), Aung San Suu Kyi's party, said, "We also heard that she [Aung San Suu Kyi] has been released, but we cannot confirm the information as yet."
Friday, 23 May 2008 23:20
New Delhi - A US based human rights group, 'Freedom Now' on Friday urged Burma's military rulers to abide by its own law and immediately release detained opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, whose detention period will be over on Saturday.
Jared Genser, President of 'Freedom Now' said Aung San Suu Kyi must be released in accordance with the Burmese law as her detention period will be legally over by midnight of May 24.
"If the junta does not release her it will be violating its own law," said Genser, who is also the Legal Counsel for Aung San Suu Kyi at the behest of her family members.
Genser said under Article 10 (b) of Burma's State Protection Law 1975, a person in Burma who is deemed a "threat to the sovereignty and security of the State and the peace of the people" can be detained for up to a maximum of five years through a restrictive order, renewable one year at a time.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent more than 12 of the past 18 years in detention, was last arrested and detained in May 2003 and will complete five years of incarceration on the eve of May 24.
"The Burmese junta has no legal right to continue her detention. Continuing to detain her will be violating its own law," Genser said.
Other leaders of Aung San Suu Kyi's party – the National League for Democracy – said they have continuously protested against the detention of their party leader calling it illegal and urged for her release.
"But the government continues to detain her without respecting the law," Nyan Win, the NLD spokesperson, said.
"And if they extend her detention period this time, it will show that the government does not respect the rule of law," added Nyan Win.
Meanwhile the Human Rights Watch said the Burmese junta has manipulated the law and violated it by detaining Aung San Suu Kyi.
David Scott Mathieson, HRW's Burma Consultant, said even after manipulation of the law the detention period for Aung San Suu Kyi ends on Saturday.
"They [junta] have to release her," Mathieson said. "They have to release her not just because the law says so, but because it is the right thing to do."
However, sources in Burma's military establishment said, the generals are planning to renew the house arrest period for another year and that this is likely to be announced on Saturday, a day before the UN and Asean led donor conference is to be held in Rangoon.
"The timing couldn't be better," Genser said in a statement released on Friday.
If the Burmese junta abides by its own law, Aung San Suu Kyi will be able to attend the international aid conference on Sunday in Rangoon.
"And if General Than Shwe refuses to release her, it will be a slap on the face of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the ASEAN diplomats who will be at hand to hear the junta's request for $11 billion of international assistance," he added.
http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/4-inside-burma/579-junta-must-abide-by-its-law-and-free-suu-kyi-freedom-now
Update: Suu Kyi detention extended, backers held
Rangoon (dpa) - In a move likely to spark new international criticism, the ruling military junta extended the house arrest of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi by six months, government sources confirmed Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, police arrested 18 supporters of the Nobel peace laureate who were protesting her detention, opposition sources said.
Suu Kyi has been under continual house arrest for the past five years. Since returning to the country in 1988, she has spent 12 years under house arrest.
The latest extension of her open-ended detention came on the 18th anniversary of the landslide election of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) in Burma's last general election. The junta refused to recognise those election results.
The 18 NLD members were arrested by plainclothes' policemen as they marched from their headquarters to Suu Kyi's Rangoon home. They were taken in two vehicles to an unknown destination.
An NLD statement called on the ruling junta to immediately release Suu Kyi and party vice-chairman Tin O, "who are detained at their homes because of their unrelenting efforts for the emergence of democracy and human rights in the State."
In apparent anticipation of a demonstration, authorities parked five patrol cars, and one paddy car outside NLD headquarters and beefed up barricades on the road outside Suu Kyi's compound.
Suu Kyi and Tin Oo have been under house arrest since May 30, 2003, when authorities charged her with threatening national security after pro-government thugs attacked her and her followers in Depayin, northern Burma, killing 70 NLD supporters.
According to Burmese law, the government cannot keep prisoners charged with undermining national security under detention for more than five years.
The detention extension is likely to draw a fresh outcry of criticism of the regime by Western democracies, who are already in an uproar about the government's obstructive response to an international effort to provide aid to victims of Cyclone Nargis, which slammed into the country May 2 and left at least 133,000 dead or missing and another 2.4 million people in dire need of emergency assistance.
The military junta has come under harsh criticism for impeding an international disaster relief effort for the victims of the cyclone, although there were signs of it opening up at a United Nations pledging conference in Rangoon.
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Link may expire:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=127867
Suu Kyi Deserves to Be Flogged, Junta Says
By AUNG HLA TUN /REUTERS WRITER / RANGOON Thursday, June 12, 2008
Burma's military junta said on Wednesday that detained opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi deserved to be beaten like an errant child for threatening national security.
Seeking to justify the 62-year-old's latest stretch of house arrest, now in its sixth year, official newspapers said Suu Kyi and other detainees had been in contact with and had received cash from rebel guerrillas and foreign governments.
"Due to the crimes they have committed, they well deserve flogging punishment as in the case of naughty children," the papers said in Burmese and English-language editorials thought to reflect the thinking of the junta's top brass. The editorials added that the government was behaving like the "parent of the people" and exercising "great patience".
It detained Suu Kyi and others "in order that they will not be in a position to commit similar crimes again", they said.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won more than 80 percent of seats in a 1990 election, only to be denied power by a military that has ruled Burma since a 1962 coup.
As the daughter of independence hero Aung San, she exercises enormous personal political clout in the nation of 57 million. It is largely out of fear of this that the ruling generals have kept her in some form of detention for nearly 13 of the last 19 years.
The newspaper commentaries also sought to explain the specific security law under which Suu Kyi is being held, but they failed to clarify whether the extension of her detention order on May 27 was for six or 12 months.
The papers also cited Singapore, Malaysia and the United States as countries which had laws to "prevent those who pose danger to the state".
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=12679
Suu Kyi Manga Released in English
By THE IRRAWADDY Friday, June 27, 2008
http://comic.irrawaddymedia.com/images_file/CoverFront.jpg
[Photo: The Irrawaddy]
In the 20 years since Aung San Suu Kyi first emerged as the leader of Burma’s pro-democracy movement, she has inspired admiration in people around the world. She has also captured the imagination of artists, filmmakers and songwriters, making her not only a political but also a cultural icon.
In 1994, she even made it into the world of manga, the book-length comics that are a ubiquitous feature of Japanese pop culture.
Aung San Suu Kyi: Tatakau Kujaku (“Aung San Suu Kyi: The Fighting Peacock”), by cartoonist Akazu Mizuha, was first released by publisher Oakla Shuppan as part of a series of manga on Nobel Prize winners. It depicts Suu Kyi’s early life, examining the impact of the political legacy of her father, assassinated independence leader Aung San, and ends with her receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
Although it has been mentioned in scholarly works as a reflection of Suu Kyi’s international appeal, it has rarely been seen, even in Japan, where it has long been out of print.
Then, earlier this year, a publisher who specializes in Thai translations of Japanese comic books discovered the manga, and decided to make it available to readers outside Japan.
“I wanted to do something for the Burmese people,” said Hidekazu Kondo, president of the Bangkok-based Negibose Thailand Co., Ltd., which occasionally produces translations of comics on political topics that have cross-cultural significance, such as North Korea’s abduction of foreign nationals in the late 1970s.
To reach a wider audience, Kondo decided to publish the comic on Aung San Suu Kyi in English, and The Irrawaddy agreed to host an electronic version on its Web site.
“It seemed like an interesting project, and it may be helpful for people who want to use it for educational purposes,” said Irrawaddy staffer Neil Lawrence, who translated the manga.
In a book on Japan-Burma relations published last year, Burma specialist Donald M. Seekins refers to the comic’s “detailed depiction of the events of Democracy Summer, including [Suu Kyi’s] speech at the Shwe Dagon Pagoda, and her 1989 house arrest.”
Although it was originally scheduled for release on June 19, Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday, production delays forced a one-week postponement of the planned launch. The book is now available on The Irrawaddy Web site for a fee of US $3/download for individuals or $30 for institutional customers.
The fee will cover production, licensing and hosting costs. Profits from the sale of the comic will be used to support Burmese relief activities.
This page also contains links to download the book at the prices listed above:
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article1.php?art_id=13016
Aung San Suu Kyi has won admirers around the world for her role in keeping the dream of democracy alive in Burma .
To celebrate her unwavering commitment to her people’s struggle for freedom, Japanese cartoonist Akazu Mizuha created Aung San Suu Kyi: The Fighting Peacock.
First published in 1994, this manga, or comic book, shows Suu Kyi’s early life and ends with her receiving the Nobel Peace Prize while under house arrest in 1991.
It also depicts the events of 1988, when Burma ’s democracy movement first came to the world’s attention.
Twenty years later, it serves as a sobering reminder that Burmese are still prisoners in their own country, just as Aung San Suu Kyi remains a prisoner in her own home.
This comic book is now available for the first time in English on The Irrawaddy Online.
It offers a unique retelling of Suu Kyi’s story, and is sure to inspire admiration for this remarkable woman.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article1.php?art_id=13016
See also previous post
Magazine editor forced to resign for publishing poem
Nem Davies
Monday, 30 June 2008 21:33
New Delhi - An editor from a monthly magazine Cherry' was forced to resign from his work for publishing a poem named 'De Pa Yin Ga', written about the historical 'Depayin' town, in June issue.
The notorious Censorship Board under the Ministry of Information summoned the editor and questioned him on June 24 for publishing the poem. He was later ordered to resign from his post.
The poem, written by poet Kyi Maung Than, depicts about the historical events connected to 'Depayin' town.
"The Censor Board asked him who would take responsibility for the poem. Htay Aung replied that he has the responsibility. Then he had to resign under pressure," an official from the magazine told Mizzima on condition of anonymity.
The poem speaks of how historically 'Depayin' town was famous for producing great heroes such as King Ahlaung Sithu and great warrior Mahabandula and many others.
The poet, however, said it is sad that the town has become a place of birth for dacoits, and thugs. In the conclusion of the poem, the poet said he was haunted by the past when he looked back on 'Depayin' town while traveling along the Ye Oo-Monywa highway.
While it is still unknown what has enraged the Burmese censorship board, it is believed that the poem made officials unhappy for picking 'Depayin' town, which is notoriously known in the recent years, for becoming a place where the Burmese opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was attacked brutally.
In May 2003, the Junta-backed thugs made a brutal attacked on the Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate's motorcade while on she was on a political tour. The attacked killed at least 60 innocent supporters and injured several others of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, but she was saved.
However, following the attacked, the Burmese democracy icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her party – National League for Democracy - Vice-Chairman U Tin Oo were placed under house arrest.
Former military intelligence officer Maj Aung Lin Htut, who defected from the army, in a recent interview with Voice of America (VOA) Burmese Service radio reveled that the 'Depayin massacre' had been an orchestrated plan and was ordered by junta chief Snr. Gen Than Shwe.
Meanwhile, journalists and literary community in Rangoon said it is unfair to sack an editor for a mere reason of publishing a poem.
"An editor should not be sacked from his job for just publishing a poem. But this kind of treatment will continue as long as the Censor Board exists and all the magazines and journals have to get permission for all their publications," a veteran writer said on condition of anonymity.
As a replacement for the editor, who has been sacked, the magazine, Cherry, said it has submitted a new editor's named, Pyi Thway Naing, whom it wants to hire as the editor, to be approved by the Censorship Board.
"We have not yet appointed a new editor. We submitted the name of the editor to the Censorship Board for their approval on Friday. We hope we will get the permission within this week," the official at the Magazine office said.
Cherry magazine was first published in 1986. Htay Aung, a veteran editor who previously worked as the Executive Editor of 'Beauty Max' magazine and as the Editor of 'Seik Ku Cho Cho' publishing house, had been working with the magazine for just over a year.
This poem can be viewed [in Burmese script] on Mizzima website by visiting this link:
http://www.mizzimaburmese.com/yatha-bank/poem/16/1354-2008-06-30-04-23-45
http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/4-inside-burma/736-magazine-editor-forced-to-resign-for-publishing-poem
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