Myanmar's Suu Kyi: Struggle for dem

[tinkyi@xxxxxxx]

Subject: Myanmar's Suu Kyi: Struggle for democracy and human rights same

Myanmar's Suu Kyi: Struggle for democracy and human rights same

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi marked today's 50th
anniversary of the U.N. human rights charter by smuggling a videotape out of
Myanmar in which she declared the struggle for those rights and the struggle
for democracy as one and the same.

Suu Kyi said she had come to ``deeply appreciate the wisdom and vision,'' of
those who drafted the U.N.'s Universal Declaration on Human Rights a half
century ago.

Myanmar's military leaders have insisted there is no human rights problem or
violations in their country.

But Suu Kyi's portrait of Myanmar has been supported by Rajsoomer Lallah, a
U.N. special envoy who visited Myanmar earlier this year.

Lallah reported that the military government tortures and jails opponents
without trial, and its soldiers kill, commit gang rapes and round up people
for forced labor,

Suu Kyi, the pivotal figure in Myanmar's democratic movement, has spent the
last nine years under house arrest or with her movements strictly curtailed
by the government.

Statements by the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner have become extremely rare,
as the government refuses to let her speak in public.

The military has ruled Myanmar, also known as Burma, since 1962.

In the past several months, the military has attempted to dismantle her
political party, the National League for Democracy, by arresting nearly a
thousand of its members and refusing to release them until they sign a
statement quitting the party.

Today, it announced it had released 81 more NLD members.

Suu Kyi has said the resignations were coerced, and the party leadership
does not recognize them.

Among those arrested were hundreds of members of the parliament elected in
1990 but which the military never allowed to convene. The NLD won 82 percent
of the seats in the assembly.

Suu Kyi said the U.N. declaration held particular relevance to the people of
Myanmar because it says governments should reflect the will of the people
through genuine elections.

``Eight years ago democratic elections were held in my country, but the
results have not been honored by the military regime, and the victorious
party, the NLD, is subjected to the most grueling persecution,'' Suu Kyi
said.

``So for us, as for many others, the struggle for democracy has become
synonymous with the struggle for human rights,'' she said.