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Hopes for Suu Kyi release fade at ASEAN meeting

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.
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