Saturday, May 16, 2009

Aung San Sui Kyi - New Charges

From the Canberra Times:
The United States has called for the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi, as Western governments condemned new charges brought against the pro-democracy icon by Myanmar's military junta.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was "deeply troubled" by the case laid against Aung San Suu Kyi just days before her six-year-long detention was to have expired.

The democracy activist has been charged with breaching the terms of her house arrest in a bizarre incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside house and hid inside her home.

Aung San Suu Kyi, now removed from her home, is being held at the grounds of Insein Prison, where the Myanmar government said she faces trial on Monday.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon is "gravely concerned" about the case, his deputy spokesman Marie Okabe said in a statement, adding Ban believed the democracy activist "is an essential partner for dialogue in Myanmar's national reconciliation."

In Geneva, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tomas Ojea Quintana, called for Aung San Suu Kyi to be freed, and said her detention broke the country's laws.



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