UNPO - Burma: ASEAN Parliamentarians Urge Suu Kyi's Release

Burma: ASEAN Parliamentarians Urge Suu Kyi's Release

Friday, 24 February 2006

Southeast Asian parliamentarians have urged governments of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to expel Myanmar from the regional grouping unless it frees opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners, Thai Senator Kraisak Choonhavan, Chairman of the Thai Senate's Foreign Affairs Commission, said here on Thursday.

The resolution was announced at a joint session recently between Thai parliamentarians and their counterparts from other ASEAN countries, Senator Kraisak, who is also Deputy Speaker of the ASEAN Parliament for Democracy in Myanmar, told journalists.

The ASEAN Parliament called on the military junta to keep its promises made four years ago to free the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) from confinement in her house in Myanmar's capital of Yangon.

''We are asking the governments of the ASEAN nations to make a commitment that it will expel Myanmar from the group if its military junta refuses to release all political prisoners and to give its people freedom and rights,'' he said.

The ASEAN Parliament was formed by the 'core' ASEAN member countries, including Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore.

Despite international pressure, Myanmar has shown no sign of freeing Ms. Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

Senator Kraisak also attacked Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, alleging that Mr. Thaksin's administration has caused some frustration among many nations since he took office as Thailand's prime minister, as he has changed the country's policy from protecting refugees to suppressing them, in particularly those from Myanmar who were put in refugee camps even though the United Nations has given them the status of displaced persons.

''The prime minister did that just to please the then leader of the military junta, Gen. Khin Nyunt,'' said the senator.

''Even though Gen. Khin Nyunt is no longer in office," Sen. Kraisak said,"Thailand's image in the eye of international community has not improved,'' he said.