MYANMAR: Aung San Suu Kyi

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Subject: MYANMAR: Aung San Suu Kyi

/* Written  9:03 pm  Feb  3, 1994 by hnaylor@xxxxxxxxxxx in igc:ai.general */
/* ---------- "MYANMAR: Aung San Suu Kyi" ---------- */
Amnesty International
International Secretariat
1 Easton Street
London WC1X 8DJ
United Kingdom

28 January 1994

             MYANMAR - NOBEL LAUREATE AND PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE
                    AUNG SAN SUU KYI TO REMAIN IN DETENTION

Speculation last week that Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace
Prize, at present in her fifth year under house arrest in Yangon (Rangoon),
may be released is premature, according to Myanmar's ruling State Law and
Order Restoration Council (SLORC).  A group of legal advisers from the SLORC
told foreign reporters on Friday 21 January that Aung San Suu Kyi will not be
released when her five-year term of detention expires on 20 July.  At an
earlier press conference, Lieutenant-General Khin Nyunt, First Secretary of
the SLORC, had stated that Aung San Suu Kyi's case would be dealt with under
"existing laws".  This was interpreted by some commentators to mean that her
release was imminent.

Aung San Suu Kyi is detained under the provisions of the 1975 State Protection
Law, which states that the maximum period of imprisonment for a person held
under this law is five years.  However, according to the SLORC's legal
advisers, this can be extended to six years, without requiring an alteration
to the existing law.

Aung San Suu Kyi founded the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Myanmar in
1988.  The NLD won a landslide victory in elections held in Myanmar in 1990,
but the SLORC has never allowed the Parliament to convene.  The SLORC took
power in Myanmar in 1988, following the violent suppression of a national
pro-democracy movement.  Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest without
trial in Yangon since July 1989 for allegedly associating with
"anti-government rebels".  Amnesty International believes that Aung San Suu
Kyi is a prisoner of conscience, detained solely for the peaceful expression
of her political views.  The organization again calls for her immediate and
unconditional release.

      Amnesty International knows of at least 70 other prisoners of conscience
at present imprisoned in Myanmar and calls upon the SLORC to release all
prisoners of conscience, including Aung San Suu Kyi, immediately and without
conditions.