ID :
13226
Mon, 07/21/2008 - 10:24
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/13226
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Myanmar foreign minister says Suu Kyi could be freed in 6 months
SINGAPORE, July 21Kyodo - Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win on Sunday indicated his country's military junta could release Myanmar political dissident Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest in about six months, Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo said.
Nyan Win explained at a working dinner for ASEAN foreign ministers that under Myanmar law, a political detainee can be held for up to six years, Yeo told reporters after hosting the dinner.
''He told us that the six-year limit will come up in half a year's time,'' Yeo said.
Asked further by reporters if that implies that Suu Kyi could be released in six months' time, Yeo said, ''I am just repeating what he told me. I think that is not an inaccurate inference.''Yeo issued a statement as the current chair of ASEAN after the dinner expressing the foreign ministers' ''deep disappointment'' with the junta's recent decision to extend Suu Kyi's detention and calling for her release and also that of other political detainees.
In a statement they will issue at their annual meeting on Monday, the ministers backed down from an earlier draft to mention Suu Kyi by name after Myanmar's strong opposition, and will instead refer to her as the leader of her National League for Democracy.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won the country's 1990 election by a landslide but the junta refused to honor the results. The Nobel peace laureatehas been detained for more than 12 of the past 18 years.
The ministers also discussed the ongoing border dispute between Cambodia andThailand that has threatened to escalate into armed conflict.
Yeo issued a separate statement on the issue as the ASEAN chair, saying the ministers ''urged both sides to exercise utmost restraint and resolve this issue amicably, in the spirit of ASEAN solidarity and neighborliness.'' It said both sides have given assurances that they would abide by ASEAN and international obligations ''and exert their utmost efforts to find a peaceful solution.'' The statement also said ASEAN has offered ''its facilities'' to help the twosides defuse the issue.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, thePhilippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
==Kyodo
Nyan Win explained at a working dinner for ASEAN foreign ministers that under Myanmar law, a political detainee can be held for up to six years, Yeo told reporters after hosting the dinner.
''He told us that the six-year limit will come up in half a year's time,'' Yeo said.
Asked further by reporters if that implies that Suu Kyi could be released in six months' time, Yeo said, ''I am just repeating what he told me. I think that is not an inaccurate inference.''Yeo issued a statement as the current chair of ASEAN after the dinner expressing the foreign ministers' ''deep disappointment'' with the junta's recent decision to extend Suu Kyi's detention and calling for her release and also that of other political detainees.
In a statement they will issue at their annual meeting on Monday, the ministers backed down from an earlier draft to mention Suu Kyi by name after Myanmar's strong opposition, and will instead refer to her as the leader of her National League for Democracy.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won the country's 1990 election by a landslide but the junta refused to honor the results. The Nobel peace laureatehas been detained for more than 12 of the past 18 years.
The ministers also discussed the ongoing border dispute between Cambodia andThailand that has threatened to escalate into armed conflict.
Yeo issued a separate statement on the issue as the ASEAN chair, saying the ministers ''urged both sides to exercise utmost restraint and resolve this issue amicably, in the spirit of ASEAN solidarity and neighborliness.'' It said both sides have given assurances that they would abide by ASEAN and international obligations ''and exert their utmost efforts to find a peaceful solution.'' The statement also said ASEAN has offered ''its facilities'' to help the twosides defuse the issue.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, thePhilippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
==Kyodo
