Myanmar party to petition for Suu Kyi's freedom

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YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Myanmar's main pro-democracy party launched a nationwide signature campaign Thursday to press for the immediate release of its detained leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and other political detainees.

Getting the public involved may be difficult in Myanmar, which has been under virtually continuous military rule since 1962. Few people are willing to publicly criticize the government, and dissidents face harassment or imprisonment.

The petition campaign was launched Thursday in Yangon at the headquarters of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party during a Union Day celebration attended by nearly 300 party members.



"The campaign is meant to show the ruling military junta and the international community the solidarity of the people and support of the people," party spokesman Nyan Win said. He said the party had not yet decided what to do with the collected signatures.

The party held a similar campaign in 2004 with no evident results.

Suu Kyi, who won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention and is currently under house arrest in Yangon.

The current junta held elections in 1990 but refused to honor the results after Suu Kyi's party won a landslide victory.

Human rights groups say Myanmar holds more than 2,100 political prisoners, up sharply from nearly 1,200 before pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks were crushed in 2007.

For the official celebration of Union Day, Myanmar's military ruler, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, called on the people "to prevent the danger of internal and external destructive elements attempting to undermine peace and stability," in a speech printed in state-run newspapers.

He did not name anyone specifically, but frequently lashes out at the opposition and at the United States and other Western nations for imposing political and economic sanctions on the government.