Hopes for the release of Myanmar’s democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi were raised and then quickly faded at an ASEAN meeting, as officials said yesterday that comments indicating she could be freed within months had been misinterpreted.
ASEAN foreign ministers have told their counterpart from Myanmar they were “deeply disappointed” over the junta’s recent decision to extend her house arrest by another year.
But Singaporean Foreign Minister George Yeo said on Sunday that the regime’s foreign minister Nyan Win had suggested she could be freed within six months under a technical deadline.
Asked yesterday whether Aung San Suu Kyi could be released then, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said: “That’s our hope.”
But Yeo said yesterday that Nyan Win had been misunderstood, and that the legal limit of the detention period would only be reached “six months from May 2009,” when the one-year extension expires.
Aung San Suu Kyi has spent most of the past 18 years under house arrest at her home in Yangon, with the most recent spell beginning in May 2003.
Trevor Wilson, a former Australian ambassador to Myanmar, said he expected her to be kept in detention until elections billed for 2010.
“I don’t think there’s any evidence that the government is ready to release her,” he said.
David Mathieson, a consultant on Myanmar for US-based Human Rights Watch, said the military regime’s claims to be abiding by national laws were farcical.
When the six-year limit expires “they’ll probably just come back up with another excuse and bank on people’s short memories,” he said.
Meanwhile, a UN-led report said Myanmar needs at least US$1 billion over the next three years to help rebuild the lives of survivors of Cyclone Nargis, in the first comprehensive assessment of the damage caused by the disaster.
The cyclone caused an estimated US$4 billion in damage, said the report prepared by the UN, ASEAN and the junta. Damage to assets was estimated at US$1.7 billion and loss of income at US$2.3 billion.
The cyclone killed at least 84,537 people and left 53,836 missing and presumed dead, the junta said.
ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said the three parties involved in the report are seeking at least US$1 billion in international aid for humanitarian relief efforts alone over the next three years to deal with the tragedy.
DISASTER: The Bangladesh Meteorological Department recorded a magnitude 5.7 and tremors reached as far as Kolkata, India, more than 300km away from the epicenter A powerful earthquake struck Bangladesh yesterday outside the crowded capital, Dhaka, killing at least five people and injuring about a hundred, the government said. The magnitude 5.5 quake struck at 10:38am near Narsingdi, Bangladesh, about 33km from Dhaka, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. The earthquake sparked fear and chaos with many in the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people at home on their day off. AFP reporters in Dhaka said they saw people weeping in the streets while others appeared shocked. Bangladesh Interim Leader Muhammad Yunus expressed his “deep shock and sorrow over the news of casualties in various districts.” At least five people,
ON THE LAM: The Brazilian Supreme Court said that the former president tried to burn his ankle monitor off as part of an attempt to orchestrate his escape from Brazil Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro — under house arrest while he appeals a conviction for a foiled coup attempt — was taken into custody on Saturday after the Brazilian Supreme Court deemed him a high flight risk. The court said the far-right firebrand — who was sentenced to 27 years in prison over a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 elections — had attempted to disable his ankle monitor to flee. Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes said Bolsonaro’s detention was a preventive measure as final appeals play out. In a video made
It is one of the world’s most famous unsolved codes whose answer could sell for a fortune — but two US friends say they have already found the secret hidden by Kryptos. The S-shaped copper sculpture has baffled cryptography enthusiasts since its 1990 installation on the grounds of the CIA headquarters in Virginia, with three of its four messages deciphered so far. Yet K4, the final passage, has kept codebreakers scratching their heads. Sculptor Jim Sanborn, 80, has been so overwhelmed by guesses that he started charging US$50 for each response. Sanborn in August announced he would auction the 97-character solution to K4
SHOW OF FORCE: The US has held nine multilateral drills near Guam in the past four months, which Australia said was important to deter coercion in the region Five Chinese research vessels, including ships used for space and missile tracking and underwater mapping, were active in the northwest Pacific last month, as the US stepped up military exercises, data compiled by a Guam-based group shows. Rapid militarization in the northern Pacific gets insufficient attention, the Pacific Center for Island Security said, adding that it makes island populations a potential target in any great-power conflict. “If you look at the number of US and bilateral and multilateral exercises, there is a lot of activity,” Leland Bettis, the director of the group that seeks to flag regional security risks, said in an
RSS