US ex-president Bill Clinton and 56 other former world leaders have appealed to Myanmar's military regime to free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Norwegian peace institute said on Monday.
OSLO: US ex-president Bill Clinton and 56 other former world leaders have appealed to Myanmar's military regime to free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Norwegian peace institute said on Monday.
Suu Kyi, 61, has been under house arrest at her home in Yangon for 11 of the past 17 years without charge or trial.
In a letter dated May 14 and addressed to the head of the Myanmar junta General Than Shwe, the 57 signatories called "for the immediate release of the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi", the Oslo Center for Peace and Human rights said.
Her latest period in detention began after a May 2003 attack on her convoy by a junta-backed militia.
Her detention comes up for review on May 27 an "excellent opportunity" for her release, the letter said though the junta has on several past occasions extended her house arrest.
Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 but was not allowed to make the trip to Oslo to receive the award. It was presented to her two sons, Alexander and Kim, who live in Britain.
"Aung San Suu Kyi is not calling for revolution in Burma, but rather peaceful, non-violent dialogue, between the military, National League for Democracy (Suu Kyi's party), and Burma's ethnic groups," the letter said.
Initiated by Norway's former prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, it was also signed by Clinton and former leaders Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan, Brian Mulroney of Canada, Junichiro Koizumi of Japan, former US president Jimmy Carter and ex-European Commission president Jacques Delors.
Others included ex-presidents George Bush, Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil, Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic, Fidel Ramos of the Philippines, Ricardo Lagos of Chile and Kim Dae-Jung of South Korea.
The letter pointed to numerous international appeals for Suu Kyi's release, including one by the United Nations General Assembly last year and one by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on January 8 shortly after he took office.
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