Posted on: Thursday, June 5, 2003

EDITORIAL
Myanmar: Regime must free Suu Kyi

Nobel peace laureate and Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been held incommunicado by that nation's ruling regime since last Friday. It says she's in good shape and is being held for her own protection.

The regime says it took her into custody following a clash, in which four people died, between her supporters and a pro-regime crowd in the north of the country.

Her colleagues tell a different story: that 60 died following an attack by militia on her motorcade and that Suu Kyi was seriously injured, possibly by shards of glass.

The regime's credibility in this matter is nil; if it does not immediately produce Suu Kyi, the worst must be feared. President Bush and the international community have demanded her release, but follow-up and increased sanctions are needed.

Thirteen years ago, the people of Burma voted overwhelming for a new parliament. The army was defeated, the National League for Democracy won. In the ensuing decade, a military dictatorship instead smashed the league's hopes. The leader of the winning party, Suu Kyi, was, for much of that period, imprisoned in her home.

The junta has made Burma, now called Myanmar, the poorest state in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. It has made Myanmar an international pariah, allowing drug trade on a grand scale and extensively brutalizing its own people.

One year ago, the regime took a welcome step toward reconciliation in releasing Suu Kyi.

That promise has harshly been denied, with new jailings, deaths and yet another detention for Suu Kyi.

Burma's fellow ASEAN members (Singapore and Malaysia are Burma's leading foreign investors) have been slow to condemn this travesty. This is where the Bush administration should mount effective pressure on the regime.