[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

Burma & U.S. Congress on July 18, 1



Subject:  Burma & U.S. Congress on July 18, 1995

Attn: Burma Newsreaders
Re: Burma & U.S. Congress on July 18, 1995
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

          BURMESE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER FREE AT LAST

                        HON. PATRICIA SCHROEDER
                                OF COLORADO
                      in the House of Representatives

                         Tuesday, July 18, 1995


Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, on July 10, 1995, Aung San Suu Kyi stepped
outside her house for the first time in 6 years. Since July 1989, Aung San
Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy [NLD] and a 1991 Nobel
Peace Prize winner, has been held incommunicado under house arrest by the
military government, the State Law and Order Restoration Council [SLORC] of
Mynamar, formerly known as Burma.

Aung San Suu Kyi's detention was part of a persistent and ongoing pattern of
human rights violations committed by the SLORC since they took power in 1988.
When the SLORC took over, they imprisoned thousands who protested against the
single-party government on charges of violating martial law.
 
Aung San Suu Kyi spent almost a year before her arrest campaigning tirelessly
for democracy, nonviolence, and human rights with former defense minister Tin
Oo, under the rubric of the National League for Democracy. Aung San Suu Kyi's
house was raided by the SLORC on July 20, 1989, and she was arrested for
`endangering the safety of the state.' She has been held these last 6 years
without formal charges, unable to communicate even with her family in
England. In spite of her imprisonment, her party, the NLD, won 81 percent of
the seats in the government. The military government did not acknowledge the
election results.
 
She is now free to resume her fight for democracy. I hope she continues her
struggle the same way she began it: Selflessly, tirelessly, and with complete
dedication to bringing democracy and respect for human rights to her people. 


--------------------------------------end. (fb.071895.congress)