Burma's Supreme Court rejects Aung San Suu Kyi's appeal against her house arrest
Catherine Ashton, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission, expressed her deep concerns about the Burmanese Supreme Court's recent decision to reject Aung San Suu Kyi's appeal against the extension of her house arrest according to a press release issued by her spokesperson. Ms. Ashton urged Burma's military junta to release all prisoners of conscience so that they can take part in the elections planned for this year which would be conducive to the long pathway of democracy.
The Burmanese people were not able to vote for their government for the last 20 years. In the 1990 elections, Ms. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won the elections by a landslide but the since 1962 ruling military junta prevented Ms. Suu Kyi from establishing a democratic government. In massive attempts by the Burmanese rulers to choke off any democratic forces, the military-controlled judicial system has made opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's spent 14 years of the last two decades either in prison or under house arrest, along with the detentions of over 2,000 further opposition activists. Her due release in 2009 was reversed by an incident where she briefly sheltered an US national who swam to her house, which a court ruling interpreted as a breach of her terms of detention. Following enormous international pressure after the initial sentence of three years in prison with hard labor, the junta chief Senior General Than Shwe transformed the verdict to 18 months of house arrest. After last week's dismissal of her appeal against this decision by the highest court without giving any reasons, her attorney stated that they intend to use the last legal opportunity and appeal once again with Burma's chief justice.
Referring to the announced elections for 2010 by the junta, Ms. Suu Kyi has already been banned from candidating herself regardless of the outcome of any appeals. Although the National League for Democracy has not decided yet whether to participate in the elections, international observers see the court ruling as part of an agenda by Burma's leaders to inhibit Ms. Suu Kyi to campaign for other members of her party and to permit formal elections without giving way to any real democratic developments.
For governments in the EU and the USA this legal decision was no surprise, but they used this incidence as an opportunity to point to the absolute necessity of drastic improvements in democratic processes and human rights protection in Burma. Catherine Ashton criticized the recent developments as damaging to "prospects for an inclusive political dialogue between the Government and opposition parties that is urgently needed to achieve progress in national reconciliation and secure long-term stability" and made a strong plea to include opposition partied in the political process "in the interest of the future of the country and its people".