Bangkok, Sep 27 (EFE).- The political party of Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, imprisoned by the military since its 2021 coup, urged the international community on Wednesday to call for her release, amid claims her health is worsening.
Then-opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi (center) greets her supporters in Pyarpone, Myanmar, January 17, 2012. EFE FILE/STRINGER
“We, National League for Democracy, call on and urge friendly countries and the international community to support us for the unconditional release of all political prisoners, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,” the party said in a statement released on the 35th anniversary of its foundation.
The NLD emphasized that Suu Kyi is “is essential in ensuring that [the] Myanmar crisis does not escalate and spread to the level of [a] regional problem.”
Suu Kyi and her NLD swept the 2016 and 2020 elections, but she was arrested on the same day the military overthrew her government on Feb. 1, 2021.
The Nobel laureate has since faced a string of charges for which she has been sentenced to a total of 33 years in prison, later reduced to 27 years, in trials surrounded by secrecy.
In recent weeks, alarms have been raised about the health of Suu Kyi, 78, whose son Kim Aris warned last week about her episodes of dizziness and vomiting and said that she cannot eat normally due to gum disease.
The NLD, dissolved by the military after the coup, also said earlier this month that the junta is not providing her with “adequate medical care and they are not providing healthy food nor accommodation sufficiently with the intention to risk her life.”
The coup plunged Myanmar into serious political and social crises that has left much of the country in chaos, with violent clashes between the military and their opponents and a crackdown by security forces against any form of dissent.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said Tuesday in Geneva that “since my last report in July the overall human rights situation in Myanmar has deteriorated even further. Widespread campaigns of violence perpetrated by the military continue, in full disregard for the fundamental principles of humanity.”
According to the latest data from local NGO Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, more than 19,200 political prisoners remain detained and more than 4,100 people have died in armed forces crackdowns since the coup.
The NLD said Wednesday that it continues to work on the ground with parties and movements opposed to the military, and that it will “oppose the sham election planned to be held by the military council, which has illegally retained state power.”
Following its coup, the junta committed to holding elections after a year, although that has been postponed as it repeatedly extends the state of emergency across the country. EFE
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