Annan welcomes release of Myanmar rights defender, urges lifting of restrictions

While welcoming Myanmar’s decision to release human rights defender Su Su Nway, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today urged the authorities to follow this with further measures to promote national reconciliation, including lifting the remaining restrictions on democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other political leaders.

Mr Annan said such moves would “alleviate the political atmosphere in the country,” remarks that were also echoed today by the UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar who repeated his call that the authorities “unconditionally release all remaining prisoners of conscience.”

“This will be critical in facilitating national reconciliation and democratic transition, to which the Myanmar leadership has committed itself, again most recently during the visit to Myanmar by United Nations Under-Secretary General for Political Affairs, Ibrahim Gambari,” Special Rapporteur Paulo Sergio Pinheiro said in a statement.

Su Su Nway was released on 6 June, after being incarcerated since October 2005, and her health condition had been a cause for concern, the rights expert noted, adding that she had been the first person in Myanmar to successfully prosecute local Government officials for imposing forced labour. Subsequently, she was prosecuted by other local officials for alleged criminal intimidation.

At the end of last month, Mr. Annan vowed to continue working for the release of Ms. Suu Kyi, whose house arrest the authorities extended, saying that “the international community cannot abandon the search for improvements in the difficult situation in Myanmar.” The democracy leader has now been under house arrest for 10 of the past 16 years.

Welcoming the recent release of Su Su Nway, a spokesman for Mr. Annan today urged the Myanmar “authorities to follow up this measure with further action that will alleviate the political atmosphere and promote national reconciliation, including the lifting of remaining restrictions” on Ms. Suu Kyi and other political leaders.

Special Rapporteurs are unpaid experts serving in an independent personal capacity who received their mandate from the now defunct UN Commission on Human Rights and will report to the newly established and enhanced Human Rights Council.