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Mizzima: World Women leaders demand



World Women leaders demand Junta freedom for Aung San Suu Kyi

Washington D.C., October 19, 2000
Mizzima News Group (www.mizzima.com)

More than 130 women representatives from 90 countries all over the world
have urged the Burmese military junta to immediately restore freedom of
Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi who has been put under house
arrest since September 22. In a memorandum sent to Burmese military
leader General Than Shwe, the women leaders who participated in the
World March of Women protested the junta for having the Nobel Laureate
deprived of free movement even after her formal release in 1995 after a
six years house arrest.

?We strongly condemn your government for having placed her and senior
leaders of the NLD under house arrest. We hold the Burmese regime
responsible for their safety and welfare,? said the memorandum signed by
women representatives from countries of all sub-regions such as Asia,
Pacific, Africa, Latin America and North America. The signed memorandum
was sent to Burmese embassy in Washington D.C. and Office of Burma?s
Permanent Representative to United Nations in New York this morning.

Representatives from exiled Women League of Burma (WLB) who organized
the
signature campaign during the World March of Women said that it is
overwhelming to see the support of world?s women towards democratic
movement in Burma and Aung San Suu Kyi who has been relentlessly
struggling for freedom and democracy in Burma for more than a decade.

The women leaders also urged the Burmese junta, which names itself State
Peace and Development Council (SPDC), to guarantee the fundamental
rights of the citizens, restore a democratically elected government and
to release all the political prisoners in Burma.

Burma?s opposition leader and her party National League for Democracy
(NLD) members were forced to return to Rangoon on September 2 from Dala
town as they attempted to travel to Kungyangon town, some 30 miles south
of the capital Rangoon, for party organization work. Aung San Suu Kyi
and her colleagues resisted this military blockade by spending full nine
days and nights in her car after which she and others were coerced by
armed riot police to go back to the capital. On September 21, Aung San
Suu Kyi was again prevented from boarding the train to Mandalay where
she planned to check reports of a crackdown on NLD members. Since then,
Burmese regime has placed her and leaders of the NLD under house arrest.