Myanmar: Suu Kyi detention is temporary

By Rafael D. Frankel
Special to the Tribune
Published June 11, 2003

BANGKOK -- The military junta that rules Myanmar allowed a UN envoy to meet with detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday, and the government later said she would be freed "as soon as the situation returns to normal."

"I can assure you she is well and in good spirits," UN envoy Razali Ismail said after the meeting with Suu Kyi, who has been held by the junta since a violent clash May 30 in northern Myanmar between her followers and junta supporters.

Military personnel accompanied Razali at the hourlong meeting with Suu Kyi, the first access granted to the Nobel Peace Prize laureate since the junta took her into "protective custody." The junta has not disclosed where she is being held or where the meeting took place.

Razali said Suu Kyi had "no scratches on her face . . . no broken arm." Some reports from pro-democracy groups said Suu Kyi had suffered a head injury and a broken arm in the clash with junta supporters.

Razali, who flew to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, after the meeting, said the military gave him no indication of how long it plans to hold Suu Kyi and hundreds of her National League for Democracy supporters.

Later in the day, the military reiterated that Suu Kyi's detention was temporary. Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win issued a statement saying a decision to release her would be made when the situation is "normal" again.

More diplomatic activity is likely to ensue as the United States and other Western countries consider moves to pressure the junta.

"The important thing is to release her and not move back to the status quo," a U.S. Embassy spokesman said in Yangon, Myanmar's capital. "The military has to move ahead and show they are truly committed to national reconciliation."

The U.S. has imposed travel restrictions on Myanmar officials, and a ban on imports from Myanmar is under consideration. The U.S. also has asked the junta's close trading partners--including China, Thailand and Singapore--to take a tough stand against the crackdown, according to a Western diplomat in Yangon.

China in particular has strong influence in Myanmar, the diplomat said. "If they told the military to [release Suu Kyi], they would," the diplomat said.

But whether China stands ready to join the West in demanding the release of Suu Kyi's supporters is questionable, and the United States has yet to determine whether it wants to spend a large amount of political capital in Beijing on the situation in Myanmar.

The United States also will be watching for signs of civil unrest associated with the crackdown, the U.S. Embassy spokesman said.

A popular uprising in 1988 brought down the socialist government in Myanmar, then known as Burma. Once the government was ousted, the military, which had supported the uprising, crushed it and has ruled ever since.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won 1990 elections in a landslide, but the military nullified the results and placed her under two separate house arrests in the next 12 years.

In a twist to the military's account of the May 30 events, an officer from the Foreign Affairs Ministry told diplomats Tuesday that the four killed and 48 wounded were only those who came to the hospital to seek treatment, a second Western diplomat said.

Evidence uncovered by the U.S. at the scene of the May 30 altercation points to a "premeditated ambush" of Suu Kyi's motorcade, the embassy spokesman said. U.S. officials think scores may have been killed and hundreds injured.

©2003 The Chicago Tribune