Obama, Clinton Call for Suu Kyi’s Immediate Release

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By LALIT K JHA Wednesday, August 12, 2009

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WASHINGTON—US President Barack Obama, and his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, on Tuesday called for the immediate and unconditional release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the popular leader of Burma, who has been sentenced to an additional 18 months of house arrest.

Both Obama, who is currently battling on the domestic front on the issue of health care, and Clinton, who was in Congo, were quick to issue statements following the verdict from Rangoon.

Calling it an unjust decision, Obama said: “The conviction and sentencing of Aung San Suu Kyi today on charges related to an uninvited intrusion into her home violate universal principles of human rights, run counter to Burma’s commitments under the Asean charter, and demonstrate continued disregard for UN Security Council statements.”

The US president called on the Burmese regime to heed the views of its own people and the international community and to work toward genuine national reconciliation.

Addressing a press conference with the foreign minister of Congo, Clinton said, “The Burmese junta should immediately end its repression of so many in this country, and start a dialogue with the opposition and the ethnic groups.”

Otherwise, the elections they have scheduled for next year will have absolutely no legitimacy, she warned.

At the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the US State Department, the assistant secretary of state for public affairs, P J Crowley, conceded that the continuation of house arrest of Suu Kyi would have a negative impact on the review of the US’s Burma policy, currently being undertaken by the Obama administration.

“The Burmese government action is completely unacceptable,” Crowley said. “Based on the facts of the case, in essence, she was convicted of being polite. This is a thinly veiled effort by the Burmese government to keep her on the sidelines for elections next year,” he said.

Crowley said the US would have extensive conversation with its allies and other regional partners as to what to do in light of the Burmese government’s action.

“In terms of our ongoing review, clearly, this will have a negative effect,” he said.


“You think about the government. They are afraid of a 64-year-old woman who probably weighs barely a hundred pounds. But what she represents is an idea that this is government by the people and on behalf of the people rather than government by the few for the benefit of a few,” Crowley said.

“And clearly, like we have in many other circumstances, there is an opportunity for a different kind of relationship by Burma with not only the United States but also the rest of the international community. And clearly, we feel this is a step in the wrong direction,” he said.

Several influential US lawmakers also joined the chorus of worldwide condemnation.

“The Burmese dictatorship is making a serious mistake by sentencing Aung San Suu Kyi to additional imprisonment,” said Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Senator John Kerry.

The junta’s actions cast serious doubt on the potential for legitimate elections next year and only reinforce longstanding international concerns about the military junta’s treatment of its own people, he said.

“The junta’s latest unjust and short-sighted actions only serves to move the government further down the path of continued international isolation,” he said.

Terming it as a politically motivated verdict, the House of Representatives speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said this is a “step backward” for the future of Burma.

“The international community must send a clear message that elections in Burma, planned for 2010, will not be open or credible without the participation of imprisoned and detained pro-democracy leaders,” she said.

Meanwhile, three major Burmese dissident groups—the All Burma Monks' Alliance, the 88 Generation Students, and the All Burma Federation of Student Unions—urged Senator Jim Webb not to visit Burma as he had scheduled.

“We are concerned that the military regime will manipulate and exploit your visit and propagandize that you endorse their treatment on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and over 2,100 political prisoners, their human rights abuses on the people of Burma, and their systematic, widespread and ongoing attack against the ethnic minorities,” they said in an open letter to Webb.