WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States on Thursday urged Myanmar's junta to free Aung San Suu Kyi as the democracy icon prepared to spend her 64th birthday facing trial.
The US State Department in a birthday greeting called on Myanmar's junta to free the Nobel laureate "immediately" and hailed the woman who has "dedicated her life to achieving democratic change and promoting progress in Burma."
"We, along with all of her admirers in Burma and abroad, look forward to the day when she will be able to celebrate her birthday in freedom," the State Department statement said, using Myanmar's earlier name.
Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 13 of the last 19 years in detention since the junta refused to recognize her National League for Democracy's (NLD) landslide victory elections in 1990.
The Nobel laureate is set to spend her birthday on Friday at Yangon's notorious Insein prison, where she is being held on charges of violating her house arrest after an American man swam to her lakeside house.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi "deplorable" and urged all nations to condemn it.
"A clear message must be sent that Aung San Suu Kyi and all other prisoners of conscience in Burma must be released, immediately and unconditionally," she said.
The new administration of President Barack Obama has launched a review of policy on Myanmar, saying it hopes to work more closely with Asian nations who have pursued engagement with the junta.
But the State Department has indicated it is not considering a lifting of sanctions.
Kurt Campbell, the nominee to be the top US diplomat for Asia, told his Senate confirmation hearing last week that the Myanmar's detention of Aung San Suu Kyi had cast a shadow over efforts to build a new policy.
by the afp
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