Solidarity message for 65th birthday of a Burmese dissident, Aung San Suu Kyi

Warsaw, 18th of June, 2010

The leading Burmese dissident Aung San Suu is celebrating her sixty-fifth birthday on June 19. For already fifteen years she has been celebrating them under house arrest. The Lech Walesa Institute would like to commemorate this anniversary and demand the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all 2100 political prisoners in Burma. Currently the only detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi won a landslide victory in Burmese elections in 1990 as a leader of a political party National League for Democracy (NLD). But the results of these elections were never recognized by the Burmese junta and the members of NLD and the democratic opposition are since then persecuted and even imprisoned.
For this year the junta has announced first elections since 1990 but the rules by which the elections will be organized denied democratic principles and basic rights of citizens. The Lech Walesa Institute also expresses its disagreement with the organized elections which will not be free and fair according to international standards.
It seems that the goal of these elections is to legitimize the military rule since Suu Kyi and more then 2100 of other political prisoners cannot take part. The Lech Walesa Institute therefore considers the planned elections as non-compliant with international standards of democratic elections and thus non-democratic.
The legal framework of Burma - new constitution issued by the junta in 2008 and the election laws issue in March 2010 - discriminate the opposition political representatives. For example they do not allow running for the elections of those who are under prosecution or imprisoned which is a tool against Suu Kyi and other imprisoned opposition members. They also do not allow the candidacy of more then 400 000 of Buddhist monks and other members of religious groups. The international community must therefore keep the pressure on the Burmese junta and demand the release of all the political prisoners, start up of a dialogue about the future of the country with Suu Kyi and the representatives of the ethnic groups and stop the violence aimed at the ethnic groups.

Lech Walesa Institute
Warsaw, Poland