Opposition welcomes British PM’s Letter

01 January 2010, Salai Pi Pi, Mizzima News.

The leading Burmese opposition party today congratulated British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for reiterating the United Kingdom’s support for Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her struggle for political change in Burma.

Nyan Win, Spokesperson for the National League for Democracy (NLD), on Thursday said the party praised the move of the British Prime Minister, who wrote to Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday of this week and assured her that his country will continue in the new year to help in the fight for the restoration of democracy and freedom in military-ruled Burma.

“Such a sort of call was unusual, but we welcome it,” Nyan Win told Mizzima.

According to a statement from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office issued on December 29th, Brown is proud of the detained Burmese democracy leader for dedicating her whole life to the cause of freedom and democracy in Burma.

“You have selflessly highlighted the wider suffering of the Burmese people rather than dwelling on your own pain. And through that courage you have gained the respect of the entire international community not just for a person, but for a cause,” Brown said in his letter.

Brown also urged the Burmese military regime to engage with Aung San Suu Kyi and to allow her to maintain contact with diplomats in Rangoon.

Aung San Suu Kyi, still under house arrest, has spent over 14 of the past 19 years in detention. Her party won a landslide victory in the 1990 election after the present military government assumed power in 1988.

However, the military government refused to honor the result of the election. At present, a new election is scheduled for 2010 as part of the regime’s seven-step road map to “disciplined democracy.”

Brown said a genuinely inclusive, free and fair election and the participation of Aung San Suu Kyi in the rebuilding work of the country is the only path that can lead military-ruled Burma into an era of peace, stability and progress.

“If the scheduled elections proceed under a rigged constitution, with opposition leaders excluded and with no international oversight, the military rulers will be condemning Burma to more years of diplomatic isolation and economic stagnation,” warned Brown.

Brown further stressed that there is no sign of change likely to happen in Burma as Burmese regime still refusing the call of regional and international community for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and committing human right violation in the country.