Activists Arrested For Praying to Release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

Tuesday, May 15 2007, 01:02 PM EDT

Contributed by: Admin

Many activists were detained while praying to release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in Insein, Rangoon
Many activists were detained while praying to release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in Insein, Rangoon
YANGON, Myanmar: Myanmar police detained 31 activists Tuesday in Yangon, where they were campaigning to free detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, their fellow activists said.

The detentions came amid an increase in activities seeking Suu Kyi's release from house arrest. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has spent more than 11 of the past 17 years in detention.

In Yangon, the military-ruled country's largest city, 11 people were detained as they walked toward Shwedagon Pagoda to pray for Suu Kyi's release, said former student activist Ko Ko Gyi.

Activists pray for her release at the massive Buddhist pagoda every Tuesday.

Separately, authorities detained 20 people led by human rights activist Su Su Nway in Insein, on Yangon's northern outskirts, while they were walking to a Buddhist temple to pray for Suu Kyi's release, Ko Ko Gyi said.

It was unclear if those detained would be charged with any offense, or just be warned and released.

Suu Kyi was taken into custody most recently on May 30, 2003, after a pro-junta mob attacked her motorcade during a political tour of northern Myanmar.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won general elections in 1990, but the current military junta, which seized power in 1988, refused to recognize the result and instead persecuted members of the country's pro-democracy movement.

In a letter Monday to Senior Gen. Than Shwe, the head of the junta, 59 former world leaders urged that Suu Kyi be released when her current term of house arrest ends on May 27, when it is expected to be renewed again.

The U.N. secretary-general has also urged her release.

The former world leaders include U.S. ex-presidents George H.W. Bush — the current president's father — as well as Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, former British prime ministers John Major and Margaret Thatcher, former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, former French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, and former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

"Suu Kyi is not calling for revolution in Burma, but rather peaceful, nonviolent dialogue between the military, National League for Democracy, and Burma's ethnic groups," said the joint letter, coordinated by former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik's Oslo Peace Center.

Myanmar was formerly called Burma, and opponents of the military regime often use the old name.

The letter also pointed out that the U.N., the European Union and many countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Japan, have urged Suu Kyi's release. (Source: International Herald Tribune, Asia-Pacific)

National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma
http://www.ncgub.net/article.php/20070515130240190