Date: Dec 16 2004
From: Turkishpress.com Myanmar junta putting Aung San Suu Kyi's health, safety at risk: opposition  YANGON (AFP) - Myanmar's opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party accused the military regime of endangering party leader Aung San Suu Kyi's life by restricting her access to a doctor and non-junta security.
The famed pro-democracy leader's access to her doctor has been slashed from three visits a week to one, while her personal NLD security detail has been cut from 13 to six, the party said in a statement. "We are very worried that she might be in danger," the NLD said, adding the moves had come into affect Tuesday despite assurances by the junta that arrangements would not be changed when it announced her detention had been extended by one year last month. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said he was "seriously concerned" about the developments. "The secretary general is seriously concerned to learn that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's personal security detail has been withdrawn, and the already limited access to her by her physician that currently exists has been further restricted," spokesman Fred Eckhard said in a statement. The NLD called on the junta, known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), to take immediate steps to maintain Aung San Suu Kyi's "health and security and (ensure her) life is not in danger". "The SPDC has complete responsibility for whatever may happen to her while she lacks security," the party said. The statement said that when Suu Kyi had declared that the security reduction was "unacceptable" the junta responded by abolishing the NLD security detail altogether. One Yangon-based analyst said the restrictions were being viewed as a very serious threat to the leader's safety and health by her party. "They (the NLD) are feeling very concerned and they are defending themselves as they can," the analyst, who did not want to be named, told AFP. "The most important message in all of this is that if anything was to happen the responsibility would be on the regime," he said. Several well-placed sources had told AFP that junta security recently started frisking her personal doctor, making it very difficult for her to send messages out to people. Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained since May last year when a junta-backed mob clashed with her supporters during one of her political trips in northern Myanmar. The Nobel peace laureate underwent surgery in September last year, which her doctor said was related to gynaecological and other unspecified conditions. The hospitalisation reignited international concerns over the health of Suu Kyi, who has been seen by few people since the junta took her into custody. The charismatic 59-year-old has emerged as an icon of democracy during her struggle against Myanmar's military, which has maintained an iron grip over the impoverished Southeast Asian nation for more than four decades. But she has paid a high price for her fame, including two previous long spells under house arrest, one lasting for six years and the other for 19 months. The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962 despite a landslide election victory by the NLD in 1990 that was never recognised. More Burma News from this Month |
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