Sarah J. Blige

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 14 of the last 20 years as a prisoner, though she has not committed any crime.

She is the pro-democracy leader of the opposition party in Burma (Myanmar), the National League of Democracy (NLD). She was arrested in 1989 by the military junta and put under house arrest, preventing her from assuming Prime Minister’s office in 1990 when the Burmese people voted (in the first “free and fair” election in 30 years) for 80% of the contested seats to go to the NLD. Burmese citizens had overwhelmingly voted for a democratic goverment, but the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) refused to acknowledge the results of the election and would not hand over power to the NLD.

Aung San Suu Kyi was originally arrested in 1989 and held under the 1975 State Protection Act, which grants the government power to imprison people and detain them for up to five years without trial. She continues to be held under house arrest under this martial law, as well as the Law to Safeguard the State Against the Dangers of Those Desiring to Cause Subversive Acts, as the government claims Aung San Suu Kyi is “likely to undermine the community peace and stability”.  She was initially released from house arrest in 1995, then arrested again in 2000 and put under house arrest until 2002.  In May 2003, Suu Kyi was travelling to meet members of the NLD party when she and 250 0ther party members were allegedly attacked by the Burmese police and military.  She was put under house arrest once again, and remains so to this day.

On August 11, 2009, after her trial had already dragged on for months, Aung San Suu Kyi was found guilty of violating her sentence for allowing an American who swam across the lake to her house (uninvited) to stay with her for two days, and her house arrest was extended for an additional 18 months. Critics of the sentence argue the charge is unwarranted and the government is simply keeping Suu Kyi locked up so that she may not participate in Burma’s coming election next year.

This man is holding a camera, not a gun

Aung San Suu Kyi, like 2,100 others, is being held as a political prisoner in Burma by an unjust government in an attempt to maintain the status quo of oppression, fear mongering and violence. Burmese citizens are not granted freedom of speech or political freedom, and pro-democracy protesters may be sentenced to up to seven years in prison for participating in peaceful demonstrations. In the 2007 uprisings in Burma, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in a peaceful protest lead by monks, but the demonstration was quickly broken up by the military and hundreds of innocent citizens were beaten or shot.

The Burmese people have suffered countless human rights abuses by a tyrannical military government for decades, including forced labor, human trafficking, and State-sanctioned torture. The military frequently uses sexual violence against the people of Burma, raping and kidnapping women to be used as sex slaves, and has also been accused of kidnapping children to be used as soldiers. (Reports claim approximately 70,000 of the 350,000 soldiers in the Burmese military are children.)

Aung San Suu Kyi represents peace, freedom and change. Burma deserves the right to democracy, and Aung San Suu Kyi deserves the right to freedom.

Visit http://www.amnesty.ca/indiv_at_risk/cases/aungsansuukyi_act.php to send a letter to the Burmese government requesting the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

Also go to http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/ and http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA16/011/2008/en/d80800e0-3248-11d%20d-adb0-a55f274f1a5a/asa160112008eng.html to learn more about the human rights abuses in Burma.