24 october, the day the world observes the official establishment of United Nations, marks a sad anniversary for Burma’s Nobel Peace prize laureate and defender of democracy Aung San Suu Kyi, right. Today, she has been kept under house arrest for an accumulated eleven years since 1989. (24-OCT-06)
Based on a press release from the Norwegian Burma Committee, this article has been translated and edited for publication here by HRH-F / Niels Jacob Harbitz.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s party the National League for Democracy won an overwhelming victory in the first ever democratic elections in Burma in 1990. Despite this undisputed result, Aung San Suu Kyi has never been allowed to form a government.
On the contrary, recent developments in Burma makes it even clearer that the military junta wants to clamp down on any and all opposition in the country even harder than before. In September, five student leaders from the people’s uprising in 1988 were arrested, among them Min Ko Naing, the most important opposition leader after Aung San Suu Kyi. Ko Naing was released only two years ago, after serving sixteen years in prison. All the five arrested are key persons in the Burmese opposition.
Struggling for democracy, political oppositionals risk their lives in Burma. This was once again made sadly clear last week when the news broke that one of Burma’s 1100 political prisoners had died in prison after having been tortured.
On the UN day, it is only approprite to remind oneself of the international society’s moral obligation to change the current situation in Burma. Norway has an important role to play. The Norwegian Burma Committee challenges Norwegian authorities to lobby the UN Security Council to pass a resolution that will set in motion initiatives towards democratization in Burma, says Aase Sand, right, the Norwegian Burma Committee’s information officer.
