The National Post - Isolated heroine still haunts Burma

The National Post - Isolated heroine still haunts Burma
Aung San Suu Kyi
Peter Goodspeed, National Post Published: Thursday, March 26, 2009

Despite years in detention and forced isolation, pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi still has the power to encourage her followers and enrage Burma's military rulers.

The charismatic daughter of independence hero, Aung San, and winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle to bring democracy to her country, she has been confined to her home without any contact with the outside world since September, 2000.

Known fondly to the residents of Rangoon simply as "The Lady," she has lived in virtual solitary confinement for 13 of the last 19 years in a heavily guarded, whitewashed villa on the south shore of Inya Lake.

Surrounded by soldiers and coils of barbed wire, the sickly 63-year-old widow is allowed to see only her doctor -- every two months -- a live-in maid and her jailers.

Not since Nelson Mandela became the personification of South Africa's struggle against apartheid, despite spending 27 years in jail, has anyone else approached the same level of political heroism in the face of repression.

Now, the United Nations has declared, for the fifth time in 18 years, Ms. Suu Kyi's detention is arbitrary and a violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But this time, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention added a twist to its ruling by declaring it also violates Burma's own constitution.

The working group, an arm of the UN Human Rights Council, said Ms. Suu Kyi is being held under Burma's 1975 State Protection Law, which provides for the detention of anyone deemed a threat to the "security of the state or public peace and tranquility" for up to five years.

Under this law, the detention order must be renewed every year and the law says it is renewable for a maximum of only five years.

In Ms. Suu Kyi's case, that five-year period ended at the end of May, 2008.

The UN group called for her immediate release.

"I am under no illusion the junta will listen to the United Nations," says Jared Genser, her family's Washington lawyer. "There is no quick and easy answer to the problem of Burma, so we have to take it one step forward at a time."

A breakthrough appears unlikely since Burma is undergoing yet another political crackdown before parliamentary elections scheduled for early next year.

This month, five members of Ms. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) were arrested, joining about 2,100 political prisoners in Burma's jails. That is almost double the number of political prisoners held in the country at the same time last year.

The Burmese junta has unveiled a "road-map to democracy," which calls for a national election next year to transfer power from uniformed officers to a civilian dictatorship.

But the new constitution, approved by 94.5% of voters in an apparently rigged referendum last year, guarantees a quarter of all legislative seats to the armed forces and bars opposition leaders, such as Ms, Suu Kyi, from ever holding office.

However, her continued imprisonment is proof of her political clout. Though silent and ailing, she remains dangerous as the only person who can unite a broad array of forces against the generals.

pgoodspeed@nationalpost.com---------

National PostTIMELINE OF DETENTION

1988: Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent most of her life in Britain, returns to Burma as pro-democracy protests sweep country. Uprising crushed. 1989: Placed under house arrest.

1990: As head of the opposition movement and NLD leader, wins national elections by a landslide. Generals nullify elections.

1991: Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "one of the most extraordinary examples of civil courage in Asia in recent decades"

1995: Released and tens of thousands rally to her cause. 2000: Again placed under house arrest. Awarded U. S. Presidential Medal of Freedom, U. S.'s highest civilian honour.