HANOI: Myanmar has said that democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi may be freed after November 7 elections, as it attempts to deflect a barrage of criticism over the discredited polls.
Myanmar’s elections, the nation’s first in two decades, have been derided as a sham by critics who say they lack any credibility without the participation of Suu Kyi and other opposition figures.
Foreign Minister Nyan Win flagged the release at Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) talks, but there was a cautious response to the comments from a regime that has kept Suu Kyi detained for 15 of the last 21 years.
“We were told that she will have completed her term of imprisonment by the first 10 days, probably, after the elections,” ASEAN secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan told reporters on Thursday. “We were told that there will be no more reason to keep her in house arrest. But for that we will have to wait. It was not a clear-cut commitment,” he said of comments made at a dinner meeting on Wednesday.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said he tackled Nyan Win on the regime’s tendency to release Suu Kyi, only to produce new charges that see her swiftly returned to detention. “No, I’m not satisfied,” he said when asked whether he accepted the minister’s statement that Suu Kyi may be freed.
“Not only an assurance but I want it to happen, that no new charges will be filed,” he said in unusually strong comments among a bloc that has a tradition of non-interference in other members’ affairs. Authorities in Myanmar have previously told AFP that the democracy leader will be released when her current term of house arrest expires on November 13, but the military state has made no official confirmation.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said that Myanmar’s neighbours were anticipating an imminent release after the polls, and that Nyan Win had not disputed that. “Our understanding is that once the present term of her sentence has expired, once she has served her sentence, then that would be it. And that notion was not disputed,” he said.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon — who holds talks Friday with ASEAN leaders — has joined western governments who have repeatedly said the vote will not be credible while Suu Kyi and other opponents are in detention.
