Deploring Myanmar verdict, Ban urges immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi
(Aug.12,2009): United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday, deplored the
decision by a Myanmar court to sentence pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to an additional 18 months of house arrest, and urged that
she be released immediately. “The Secretary General is deeply disappointed by the
verdict in respect of Aung San Suu Kyi,” Ban’s spokesman said in a statement. “The
Secretary General deplores this decision,” the statement added. Suu Kyi, who
leads the National League for Democracy (NLD), was reportedly convicted of violating
state security laws, after an uninvited United States citizen gained access to her
home. She has already spent over 12 years under house arrest. Ban urged the Government
to “immediately and unconditionally” release Suu Kyi and to engage with her without
delay, as an essential partner in the process of national dialogue and reconciliation.
“Unless she and all other political prisoners in Myanmar are released, and allowed
to participate in free and fair elections, the credibility of the political process
will remain in doubt,” the statement added. The sentence was also condemned by
four independent UN human rights experts. “This was a baseless trial convened by the
Government of Myanmar to exclude Aung San Suu Kyi from the 2010 elections,” they stated
in a joint news release in Geneva, in which they reiterated their call for her immediate
and unconditional release.