Myanmar opposition asks for Suu Kyi meeting

Myanmar opposition asks for Suu Kyi meeting
Tue Mar 24, 3:38 am ET

YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar's opposition Tuesday issued a fresh appeal for permission to see Aung San Suu Kyi and other detained leaders, after a UN panel said the ruling junta broke the country's own law by holding her.

The Nobel laureate's National League for Democracy (NLD) issued a statement asserting its right to meet with all its central executive committee members, including those in detention, to discuss the party's future plans.

The party had sent a request to the leader of the military regime, Senior General Than Shwe, last Thursday but had not yet received a reply, it said.

"As the NLD is a legally operating political party according to political party registration law, it is essential that we draw up party policies, regulations, aims and future plans," the statement said.

"The time has come to make decisions by holding discussions with all central executive commmittee members... including vice-chairman U Tin Oo and general secretary Daw Aung San Suu Kyi," it said, using honorific forms of their names.

Aung San Suu Kyi and Tin Oo have been detained at their homes since being arrested together in May 2003, after a pro-government mob attacked their convoy during a political visit to central Myanmar.

The 62-year-old Aung San Suu Kyi has spent most of the past 19 years under house arrest because of her political activities, while Tin Oo has undergone several periods of incarceration since the 1970s.

A United Nations rights panel on Monday released documents saying that the junta's continued detention of Aung San Suu Kyi violated Myanmar's own law, in addition to international law.

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said that Myanmar was breaking its own 1975 State Protection Law, which only allows detention without charge for those who pose a risk to state security or public peace.

Aung San Suu Kyi's party won a landslide victory in elections in 1990 but the junta never allowed it to take office.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962.

Authorities plan to hold elections in 2010 but the NLD has refused to take part as Aung San Suu Kyi is barred from standing.

Rights groups have accused the junta of trying to suppress dissenting voices ahead of the elections, which have been derided as a sham by activists.