Burma - Anniversary of Attack on Aung San Suu Kyi

On May 30, 2003, elements of the Burmese junta orchestrated a brutal attack by government-affiliated thugs on democratic opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her pro-democracy supporters as they were traveling near Depeyin.

Now one year later, the people of Burma are no closer to reconciliation or accountability for human rights abuses. The Burmese junta has not accounted fully for the dead, injured, and missing from the May 2003 attack, despite calls from the international community, including the United Nations. Aung San Suu Kyi and fellow senior leader U Tin Oo remain under house arrest. National League for Democracy (NLD) offices remain closed. The junta is holding a National Convention that prohibits a free exchange of views and that does not include the NLD and the United Nationalities Alliance, a group of ethnic parties that participated in the 1990 elections.

This month marks the 14th anniversary of those elections, which were won overwhelmingly by the NLD. The military junta has never recognized the results of those elections.

The United States calls on the Burmese junta to take immediate steps that will lead to a broad-based, democratic government. We urge the junta to release Aung San Suu Kyi and U Tin Oo and the over one thousand political prisoners in Burma, allow the NLD to reopen their offices, undertake a substantive dialogue with the democratic opposition and ethnic groups, thus beginning down the path toward genuine reconciliation.

2004/607