Myanmar foreign minister says Suu Kyi could be freed in 6 months SINGAPORE, July 21 (Kyodo) - Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win on Sunday indicated his country's military junta could release Myanmar political dissident Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest in about six months, Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo said.
Nyan Win explained at a working dinner for ASEAN foreign ministers that under Myanmar law, a political detainee can be held for up to six years, Yeo told reporters after hosting the dinner.
''He told us that the six-year limit will come up in half a year's time,'' Yeo said.
Asked further by reporters if that implies that Suu Kyi could be released in six months' time, Yeo said, ''I am just repeating what he told me. I think that is not an inaccurate inference.''
Yeo issued a statement as the current chair of ASEAN after the dinner expressing the foreign ministers' ''deep disappointment'' with the junta's recent decision to extend Suu Kyi's detention and calling for her release and also that of other political detainees.
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Asean Issues Strong Rebuke against Burma
By VIJAY JOSHI / AP WRITER / SINGAPORE
Monday, July 21, 2008
Southeast Asian nations issued their strongest rebuke ever to military-ruled Burma before opening an annual security meeting Monday amid a bubbling border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia.
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Youth members of National League for Democracy, Burma's opposition party led by Aung San Suu Kyi, stand outside the party headquarters in Rangoon during the Martyr's day ceremonies on July19. (Photo: AP) snip
At the end of a working dinner Sunday, the ministers issued a statement expressing "deep disappointment" that Burma's junta had extended the detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi by another year, the sixth straight year that she has remained under house arrest in her dilapidated villa.
Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win, however, held out a glimmer of hope that Suu Kyi would be freed within six months at the end of the maximum six-year period that a political detainee can be held by law, Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo said.
Still, the joint statement was an unprecedented criticism of Burma by Asean, the region's main bloc, whose members usually stick to the policy of not interfering in each other's domestic affairs.
The ministers also urged the junta to engage in a "meaningful dialogue with all political groups and work toward a peaceful transition to democracy in the near future."
The statement is a reflection of its deep frustrations with Burma's junta, which has kept Suu Kyi in detention for 12 of the last 18 years at varying times. Asean is also fed up of the criticism it faces from the international community for not putting enough pressure on Burma.
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