Minivan News - President urges release of Burmese political prisoner
11 February 2009
Maryam Omidi
Former political prisoner President Mohamed Nasheed has spoken out against the 14-year detention of Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi by the Burmese military authorities.
In a strongly-worded letter to Ibrahim Gambari, the UN special envoy to Burma, President Nasheed urged him to seek a “more substantial result” in the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.
Aung San Suu Kyi, 63, has become a global symbol of non-violent resistance in the face of oppression by Burma’s military regime. In 1991, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle to bring democracy to Burma.
Nasheed, an Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience in 1991, was elected as president of the Maldives in the country's first multi-party elections in October 2008. He extended an invitation to Aung San Suu Kyi for his swearing in ceremony on 11 November 2008.
In his letter, Nasheed said he was concerned about the political situation in Burma, which he says has made no “tangible democratic progress”.
He writes about the Maldives’ multi-party elections last year, which resulted in the overthrow of a “30-year-old dictatorship”. The people of the Maldives, he writes, are with those “struggling to establish democracy in Burma”.
“It is extremely frustrating to watch the constant abuse of human rights by the leaders of Burma and the plight of more than 270 pro-democracy activists recently jailed, some given sentences of 100 years.
“As a former political prisoner myself, it is especially distressing to see that nearly 2000 political prisoners are currently languishing in the jails of Burma without hope of freedom.”
Nasheed ends his letter by calling the Burmese junta’s “Roadmap to Democracy” a sham which will not “pull wool over the eyes of the world”.
Article 19, a human rights organisation that campaigns for freedom of expression around the world, has welcomed the president’s letter.
In an email to Minivan News, director Agnes Callamard said, “Governments of the region, particularly member states of the Asean have been remarkably quiet in front of the plight of the people of Burma.
“Their silence amounts to condoning the Burmese authorities’ complete disregard for human rights, democracy and the rule of law as exemplified by their continued imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi and of all other prisoners of conscience.”
Aung San Suu Kyi is the daughter of General Aung San – a leader in Burma’s independence movement – who was assassinated in 1947.
On her return to Burma in 1988 after living abroad, the country was undergoing a major political upheaval, with thousands taking to the streets and demanding democratic reform.
Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s principle of peaceful resistance as well as Buddhist tenets of pacifism, she formed the National League for Democracy (NLD), which aimed to expedite the democratisation process in Burma.
The same year, she was put under house arrest and was told she could walk free if she left the country – she refused.
In 1990, the junta called national elections and the NLD won in a landslide victory, even though Aung San Suu Kyi was under house arrest.
In her most well-known speech, “Freedom from fear”, she said, “It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.”
11 February 2009
Maryam Omidi
Former political prisoner President Mohamed Nasheed has spoken out against the 14-year detention of Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi by the Burmese military authorities.
In a strongly-worded letter to Ibrahim Gambari, the UN special envoy to Burma, President Nasheed urged him to seek a “more substantial result” in the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.
Aung San Suu Kyi, 63, has become a global symbol of non-violent resistance in the face of oppression by Burma’s military regime. In 1991, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle to bring democracy to Burma.
Nasheed, an Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience in 1991, was elected as president of the Maldives in the country's first multi-party elections in October 2008. He extended an invitation to Aung San Suu Kyi for his swearing in ceremony on 11 November 2008.
In his letter, Nasheed said he was concerned about the political situation in Burma, which he says has made no “tangible democratic progress”.
He writes about the Maldives’ multi-party elections last year, which resulted in the overthrow of a “30-year-old dictatorship”. The people of the Maldives, he writes, are with those “struggling to establish democracy in Burma”.
“It is extremely frustrating to watch the constant abuse of human rights by the leaders of Burma and the plight of more than 270 pro-democracy activists recently jailed, some given sentences of 100 years.
“As a former political prisoner myself, it is especially distressing to see that nearly 2000 political prisoners are currently languishing in the jails of Burma without hope of freedom.”
Nasheed ends his letter by calling the Burmese junta’s “Roadmap to Democracy” a sham which will not “pull wool over the eyes of the world”.
Article 19, a human rights organisation that campaigns for freedom of expression around the world, has welcomed the president’s letter.
In an email to Minivan News, director Agnes Callamard said, “Governments of the region, particularly member states of the Asean have been remarkably quiet in front of the plight of the people of Burma.
“Their silence amounts to condoning the Burmese authorities’ complete disregard for human rights, democracy and the rule of law as exemplified by their continued imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi and of all other prisoners of conscience.”
Aung San Suu Kyi is the daughter of General Aung San – a leader in Burma’s independence movement – who was assassinated in 1947.
On her return to Burma in 1988 after living abroad, the country was undergoing a major political upheaval, with thousands taking to the streets and demanding democratic reform.
Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s principle of peaceful resistance as well as Buddhist tenets of pacifism, she formed the National League for Democracy (NLD), which aimed to expedite the democratisation process in Burma.
The same year, she was put under house arrest and was told she could walk free if she left the country – she refused.
In 1990, the junta called national elections and the NLD won in a landslide victory, even though Aung San Suu Kyi was under house arrest.
In her most well-known speech, “Freedom from fear”, she said, “It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.”
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