Burma: Aung San Suu Kyi 'Wins Seat' in Historic Election
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Aung San Suu Kyi's party claims she has won a seat in Burma's parliament after Sunday's historic election, setting the stage for her to hold public office for the first time.
The victory, if confirmed, marks a major milestone in the Southeast Asian nation, where the military has ruled almost exclusively for a half-century and where the government is now seeking legitimacy and a lifting of Western sanctions.
The victory claim was displayed on a digital signboard above the opposition National League for Democracy's headquarters in Rangoon.
Earlier, the party said in unofficial figures that Ms Suu Kyi was ahead with 65 per cent of the vote in 82 of her constituency's 129 polling stations. Read on and comment » | Dean Nelson | Rangoon | Sunday, April 01, 2012
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's pro-democracy leader, has been reunited with her son who[m] she last saw a decade ago.
In an emotional moment at the Yangon airport, 10 days after her release from detention, Ms Suu Kyi met Kim Aris, 33, who was finally granted a visa by the military regime after waiting for several weeks in neighbouring Thailand.
Just before walking into the airport terminal, the 65-year old Ms Suu Kyi, who was released earlier this month after more than seven years under house arrest, said: "I am very happy."
A smiling Ms Suu Kyi slipped her arm around her son's waist as the two posed briefly for photographers.
Through her lawyer Nyan Win, Ms Suu Kyi thanked the Burmese authorities for issuing the visa to her son, who resides in Britain and last saw his mother in December 2000. He has repeatedly been denied visas ever since by the ruling junta. >>> | Tuesday, November 23, 210
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Burma: Aung San Suu Kyi Released
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese opposition leader, has been released after seven years in detention.
Ms San Suu Kyi appeared outside her house, waving and smiling. Someone threw her a flower which she put in her hair.
Addressing the jubilant crowd, she told her supporters: "["]There is a time to be quiet and a time to talk. People must work in unison. Only then can we achieve our goal."
She was expected to meet her party leaders inside her home on Saturday. She also invited her supporters to come to her party's headquarters on Sunday to hear her speak.
At least 1,000 people had gathered near her lakeside villa to witness her release.
Many cheered loudly and chanted "Release Aung San Suu Kyi" and "Long live Aung San Suu Kyi", as officials pulled down barbed wire and removed the concrete barricades.
Witnesses said that police were no longer stationed outside the building. >>> | Saturday, November 13, 2010
BIRMANIE : Enfin libre, Aung San Suu Kyi appelle au rassemblement de ses partisans
L'opposante Aung San Suu Kyi a été libérée après plus de sept ans en résidence surveillée. Photo : Le Pont
LE POINT: Aung San Suu Kyi, symbole de la lutte pour la démocratie en Birmanie, a été libérée samedi après plus de sept ans en résidence surveillée, demandant à des milliers de partisans en liesse de travailler "à l'unisson" pour l'avenir du pays. La lauréate du prix Nobel de la paix, considérée par certains comme l'unique solution face à la junte au pouvoir, est apparue souriante aux grilles de sa maison, quelques minutes après avoir pris connaissance de l'ordre de libération la concernant.
Portant dans ses cheveux une fleur lancée depuis la foule, elle a prononcé quelques mots devant des partisans en délire, la plupart de ses paroles étant couvertes par les hurlements et les applaudissements. "Nous devons travailler ensemble, à l'unisson" à l'avenir du pays, a-t-elle déclaré. "Si vous voulez entendre, venez s'il vous plaît demain à midi au bureau" de la Ligue nationale pour la démocratie (LND), son parti dissous avec lequel elle a mené tout son combat depuis son apparition sur la scène politique birmane, en 1988. "Elle est libre maintenant", avait indiqué un responsable birman quelques minutes auparavant, tandis que la police enlevait les barrières menant à la vieille demeure familiale dans laquelle elle a été si longtemps confinée. >>> Source AFP | Samedi 13 Novembre 2010
Aung San Suu Kyi auf freiem Fuss: Burmesische Friedensnobelpreisträgerin zeigt sich ihren Anhängern
NZZ ONLINE: Die birmanische Oppositionsführerin Aung San Suu Kyi kommt auf freien Fuss. Ihr wurde am Samstag die Aufhebung ihres Hausarrest verlesen.
In Burma ist die Oppositionspolitikerin Aung San Suu Kyi aus ihrem Hausarrest entlassen worden. «Sie ist nun frei», sagte ein Regierungsvertreter, der namentlich nicht genannt werden wollte.
Die Friedensnobelpreisträgerin zeigte sich danach ihren Anhängern. Die 65-Jährige erschien in Rangun am Tor ihres Hauses, in dem die sie jahrelang abgeschnitten von der Aussenwelt leben[.] >>> afp | Samstag, 13. November 2010
Sunday, November 07, 2010
Suu Kyi Too Hot for Asia's Most Brutal Regime to Handle
THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY: Burma's political heroine has spent 15 of the past 20 years under arrest. Now, as the country goes to the polls, her fate hangs in the balance
She is by some stretch the most abused political heroine alive today. She has been confined to her crumbling family home in Rangoon for more than 15 of the past 20 years. Her two sons, Alex and Kim, have for many years been barred from visiting her – Kim, now 33, is in Bangkok trying to get a visa so he can see his mother for the first time in 10 years. The last wish of her gravely ill husband, Michael Aris – to die in her arms – was brutally snubbed.
But in one week's time all that could be in the past and Aung San Suu Kyi could walk through the rusty iron gates of 54 University Avenue, Rangoon, a free woman again.
Or will she? >>> Peter Popham | Sunday, November 07, 2010
Sunday, August 16, 2009
John Yettaw, American Jailed in Burma, Released to US Officials
THE SUNDAY TIMES: The American man jailed in Yangon for swimming to the house of Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has flown out of Burma after being released to US officials earlier today.
Authorities in Burma handed over jailed American citizen John Yettaw to US embassy officials earlier today, ahead of his departure from the country with US senator Jim Webb.
The US embassy said Mr Yettaw is now headed to Bangkok, Thailand, on a military plane with Senator Webb.
The senator secured his release on Saturday with a plea to Myanmar's ruling junta.
Mr Webb thanked the government for the release of Mr Yettaw at a brief news conference just prior to their departure this morning. Mr Yettaw was sentenced last week to seven years at hard labour for breaking the terms of Ms Suu Kyi's house arrest in early May.
Senator Webb met Myanmar’s top military leader Than Shwe and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday, and announced the release of the American who was jailed for visiting the Nobel peace laureate.
Mr Webb, a Democrat who is chairman of a Senate subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific, is the first member of Congress to travel in an official capacity to Myanmar in more than a decade and is also believed to be the first senior American official ever to meet Than Shwe. >>> | Sunday, August 16, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Aung San Suu Kyi Found Guilty - Sentence Will Keep Her Out of Election
TIMES ONLINE: The Burmese democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been sentenced to a further 18 months of house arrest for receiving an eccentric American wellwisher in the home where she was being detained.
The court in Rangoon’s Insein Prison sentenced Ms Suu Kyi to three years hard labour, but it was immediately commuted to a year and a half under house arrest by the leader of Burma’s military dictatorship, Senior General Than Shwe. John Yettaw, the American whose late-night swim to her lakeside home led to her trial, received a seven-year sentence with hard labour.
The sentence will take Ms Suu Kyi out of the running for the elections which the Burmese junta has promised to hold next year, and will confirm many of its opponents in their suspicion that the charges against her were politically motivated to eliminate the symbol of the country’s long suppressed democracy movement.
Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won an overwhelming victory in the last election in 1990, a result that was never accepted by the junta.
The verdict had been delayed without explanation for 11 days, and there had been suspicions that it might be postponed again after Mr Yettaw was admitted to hospital last week after suffering epileptic seizures.
According to her lawyers, Ms Suu Kyi had been anticipating a guilty verdict, and had assembled a library of books to see her through a long prison sentence. Burma has more than 2,000 political prisoners and almost all received no more than perfunctory consideration from the courts, which predictably yield to the wishes of the military dictatorship. >>> Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Editor | Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Suu Kyi: Sarkozy appelle à des sanctions
leJDD.fr: Nicolas Sarkozy condamne le verdict "brutal et injuste", qui touche l'opposante birmane Aung San Suu Kyi, condamné mardi à 18 mois de prison. "Les autorités birmanes confirment par cette décision inique leur choix d'ignorer les messages pressants de la communauté internationale", estime l'Élysée dans un communiqué publié mardi. Le chef de l'Etat appelle l'Union européenne à réagir rapidement "par l'adoption de nouvelles sanctions dirigées contre le régime birman, qui doivent viser tout particulièrement les ressources dont il profite directement dans le domaine de l'exploitation du bois et des rubis", poursuit le texte. [Source: leJDD.fr] Mardi 11 Août 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Prison Looms for Aung San Suu Kyi as Burma Show Trial Draws to a Close
TIMES ONLINE: The Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is facing an almost certain criminal conviction and a sentence of up to five years in prison when a Rangoon court delivers its verdict at the end of this week, her defence team said yesterday.
Wrapping up her two-and-a-half-month trial, Ms Suu Kyi’s lawyers gave their reply to the prosecution’s final arguments in a court in Insein prison, Rangoon. She is accused of violating the terms of her lengthy house arrest by giving shelter to an eccentric American who entered the lakeside home where she has spent 14 of the past 20 years in detention.
Speaking softly, Ms Suu Kyi stood and turned to diplomats attending the hearing and said: “I’m afraid the verdict will be painfully obvious.”
“She thanked us for trying to promote a just outcome,” said an Asian diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity. Only diplomats from the US, Japan, Singapore and Thailand were allowed to attend the last day of the trial.
Her lawyers held out little hope of an acquittal when the verdict is delivered. “We have a good chance according to the law but we cannot know what the court will decide because this is a political case,” said Nyan Win, a lawyer for Ms Suu Kyi and the spokesman for her party, the National League for Democracy. “I have never seen any defendant in a political case being set free. We have done our best and she is prepared for the worst.” >>> Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Editor | Wedmesday, July 29, 2009
Friday, July 24, 2009
Aung San Suu Kyi 'Fears Worst' as Trial Nears an End
TIMES ONLINE: Burma’s democracy leader is “preparing for the worst” as her two and a half month trial for giving shelter to an eccentric American well wisher nears its conclusion, one of her lawyers said today.
Aung San Suu Kyi's defence team summed up their case in the court in Rangoon’s notorious Insein Prison where she is on trial for allegedly breaching the terms of her detention under house arrest. Also on trial is John Yettaw, a US citizen who swam uninvited to her lakeside house because he had dreamed of her assassination and wanted to warn her of impending danger.
Her two house companions are also charged, and defence arguments for them and for Mr Yettaw will continue on Monday. Foreign diplomats from European embassies in Rangoon were allowed into court for the first time in several weeks, but her lawyer, Nyan Win, suggested that Ms Suu Kyi held out little hope of avoiding conviction, which could bring a sentence of five years and exclusion from the elections which the unelected junta promises to hold next year.
“As for her, she is preparing for the worst,” he told Reuters after the hearing. >>> Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Editor | Friday, July 24, 2009
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Junta to Put Democracy Leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Trial
TIMESONLINE: Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s democracy leader, is to stand trial on Monday at Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison in connection with a visit from a mysterious American last week, her party said last night.
A motorcade which included her car and several police vehicles left her lakeside home early this morning and drove to the prison.
“Her lawyer said the authorities will charge the lady and her two maids at the court in Insein prison,” said Nyan Win, spokesman for Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party.
It was not clear what charges she faced but exile groups said she was likely to be charged under a cover-all public security law which is often used against political dissidents and could face a prison term of up to seven years.
Ms Suu Kyi., 63, has already spent more than 13 of the last 19 years — including the past six — in detention without trial for her non-violent promotion of democracy, despite international pressure for her release.
A trial could be used to justify another extension of her detention, which officially ends on May 27. The military junta has repeatedly found reasons to extend her periods of house arrest. >>> Anne Barrowclough | Thursday, May 14, 2009
