WASHINGTON ― Burma’s detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi must be released by the country’s military junta by Nov. 13, a Washington-based legal group, Freedom Now, has said in a statement.In this 1995 photo, Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, reads in her yard where she was under house arrest currently. (Photo: Steve McCurry/Magnum Photos)
Suu Kyi, the popular pro-democracy leader, has spent nearly 15 of the last 21 years in detention. “She must, under Burmese law, be released on Nov. 13, 2010,” the group said in the statement.
Her release from house arrest would occur after the country's general election, scheduled to be held on Nov. 7. The legal group's assessment is consistent with a public comment by Burmese Minister for Home Affairs Maung Oo in January that Suu Kyi “will be released this November.”
On Aug. 11, 2009, almost three months after she was due to be freed from her illegal house arrest of six years, Suu Kyi was sentenced to three years in prison, which was then commuted to 18 months of house arrest under Section 401(5) of the Criminal Procedure Code.
“According to the junta, this extension was justified by Suu Kyi’s alleged violation of the terms of her house arrest when American John Yettaw swam onto her property uninvited,” Freedom Now said, adding that this latest extension of house arrest ends on Nov. 13.
Under Burmese law, the term or sentence must be counted as beginning when Suu Kyi was transferred to Insein Prison on May 14, 2009, according to the group.
It also said that Suu Kyi’s detention in prison under the new charge violates the terms of her house arrest.
“The junta cannot legally renew or extend Suu Kyi’s house arrest—not only has she served one year more than the maximum five years permitted under the now unconstitutional State Protection Law, but the junta issued the 18-month term of house arrest for violating the law under a provision which is neither renewable nor extendable,” Freedom Now said.
It noted that the Burmese military junta―which annulled the 1974 constitution when it took power in 1988 and then replaced it with the 2008 constitution―illegally applied laws against Suu Kyi in two key respects.
First, the State Protection Law does not permit protective custody but rather, permits only the detention of an individual who might perform “any act endangering the sovereignty and security of the state or public peace and tranquility.”
Second, the State Protection Law allows for a maximum of five years of detention without charge or trial, renewable in one-year increments. Suu Kyi, therefore, even under the junta’s illegal application of an illegal law, should have been released on May 30, 2008, five years after her initial detention. The junta, however, claimed it had the right to detain Suu Kyi under the State Protection Law for six years, Freedom Now said.
Meanwhile, through state broadcasts on Tuesday, Burma’s election commission announced formally the disbanding of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) along with other nine parties, four months after the deadline for renewing party registration.
The NLD had decided not to renew its party registration, saying the election under the military-backed 2008 constitution is not free, fair and inclusive. Since Suu Kyi is serving a sentence, she has been excluded from participating in the election.
Although Suu Kyi was under her first period of house arrest in 1990, the NLD won the national elections by a landslide, taking 82 percent of all constituencies. However, the military junta never honored the election result.
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