Ethos Public Relations Manchester

Detention of Burmese democracy leader illegal

by Shaun

Hallelujah! The United Nations has finally acknowledged that the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi is illegal and is calling on the military regime to release her.

The judgment, by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, states that Aung San Suu Kyi's detention is in violation of both Burmese and international law.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been in detention for over 13 years, since her political party, the National League for Democracy, and its allies won the 1990 elections in Burma with more than 80% of the parliamentary seats. The military regime never recognised the election results.

In September 2007 a peaceful pro-democracy protest was brutally suppressed and there are now over 2,000 political prisoners who have been imprisoned just for peacefully calling for democracy and freedom in Burma.

The Burma Campaign UK is urging people to sign a petition calling on the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to make it his personal priority to secure the release of all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi. The petition target is 888,888 signatures, symbolising 8.8.88, the day the junta massacred some 3,000 people who courageously protested in Burma's largest democracy uprising.

As an organisation that believes in democracy and free speech, Ethos public relations supports the petition and would encourage others to do the same.

Sign the petition at http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/fbppn.htm

Aung San Suu Kyi's facebook page is at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Aung-San-Suu-Kyi/9953503420?ref=pdb. 30,000 people are already supporting Aung San Suu Kyi on Facebook.

Photo credit: Burma Campaign UK

Posted at 5:42pm on 24^th March 2009