Military halts Aung San Suu Kyi outside Yangon

YANGON, AUG 25: Myanmar Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is in a stand-off with the junta on a road outside Yangon after defying a trave...

YANGON, AUG 25: Myanmar Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is in a stand-off with the junta on a road outside Yangon after defying a travel ban which restricts her to the capital, sources said on Friday. Members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) said the Nobel laureate has been facing off the military authorities for nearly 24 hours since her car was stopped at the town of Dallah on Thursday afternoon.

She had been on her way to a meeting of the party’s youth wing in the nearby town of Kawhmu, they said. The NLD has not been in contact with her since then and has no more information on the situation in Dallah, about 32 kilometres from Yangon, they said.

NLD chairman U Aung Shwe said Aung San Suu Kyi was merely attempting to carry out "legitimate party organisation work." "As a private citizen, she is entitled to travel along that road and should not be stopped from doing so," he said.

Story continues below this ad

A senior spokesman for the military regime confirmed that Aung San Suu Kyi and a group of people accompanying her had been halted at Dallah and told to stay there or return to Yangon. The Opposition leader had been travelling without proper security arrangements and was stopped for her own safety, he said in a statement. "Due to threats by armed insurgent separatist forces, travel by prominent persons to some parts of the country is at present inadvisable," he said. "As a prominent citizen of Myanmar … the government will take all necessary action in protecting her from these threats while also safeguardng her human rights, as much as possible including the right to freedom of movement."

Although she is no longer under house arrest as she was between 1989 and 1995, Aung San Suu Kyi is confined to Yangon and her movements are closely monitored. Attempts to test these restrictions in 1998 resulted in a stand-off with her military escort which emphasised the stalemate into which Myanmar has sunk.

The NLD won a crushing victory in 1990 elections but the results have never been recognised by the military which has carried out a campaign of intimidation against the Opposition since the student uprisings of 1988. The junta is widely accused by the international community of gross human rights abuses, including slave labour, rape and torture. It rejects the allegations and contends that it intends to make democratic changes but only after it has achieved stability and peace. The military has been in control of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, in various guises since 1962. It has branded Aung San Suu Kyi a traitor and an agent of foreign countries, especially former colonial ruler Britain.