Washington - Joining world-wide protests, US First Lady
Laura Bush and women US senators Wednesday launched a campaign for
the release of Aung San Suu Kyi from prison in Myanmar and called for
renewal of the official US boycott against Burmese imports.
Bush also urged Beijing to take a stand on human rights in
Myanmar, and to counter Myanmar's burgeoning drug trade and public
health problems.
With the fourth anniversary of Suu Kyi's current house arrest on
Sunday, the women launched the Senate Women's Caucus on Burma to
demand the 'unconditional' release of the imprisoned leader and to
throw the spotlight on the use of rape and child soldiers by the
military junta to intimidate the population.
'Rape is practised as a form of oppression. The use of forced
labour is widespread. Human trafficking is rampant,' said Senator
Dianne Feinstein.
Referring to a failed UN Security Council resolution on human
rights in the southeast Asian country that was blocked by China and
Russia in January, Bush urged Beijing to take a stand on Suu Kyi's
detention and on the escalating drug trade and disease that threaten
the region.
'China, especially, because of their closeness to Burma, should
worry about the human rights abuses that are there,' the first lady
said. 'They should worry about the drug exporting from there. They
should worry about the malaria and AIDS that are now resistant to
drugs.'
Bush charged that the Myanmar regime had allowed 'all of those
public health problems' to develop as the country had deteriorated,
presenting a threat 'to their neighbours, specifically, but also for
all of us.'
'And so I urge China to stand with us, as well,' she said.
The women, who met on Capitol Hill, called on the Myanmar regime
to begin national reconciliation talks with Suu Kyi's National League
for Democracy (NLD).
Suu Kyi's party won Myanmar's general election with a landslide
victory on May 27, 1990, but the ruling military junta - the State
Peace and Development Council (SPDC) - refused to step aside and
imprisoned Suu Kyi instead.
'I really would like Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to know that the women
of the United States Senate, as well as the women of the United
States stand with her, and that we watch her and we think about her a
lot,' Bush said.
The current sentence for Suu Kyi, a Nobel Prize winner who has
spent most of the 17 years imprisoned or under house arrest, was set
to expire on Sunday, but diplomats in the region were not optimistic
about her release.
The Senate's Republican and Democratic women signed a letter to UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, urging him to press for the 'immediate
and unconditional' release of Suu Kyi and all political prisoners in
Myanmar.
'Suu Kyi has dedicated her life to a peaceful, non-violent
movement for democracy in Burma,' the letter noted.
Bush was submitting a separate but similar letter in her own name.
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison expressed concern about Russia's
intentions to sell nuclear reactor equipment to the Myanmar regime.
'The last thing in the world freedom lovers need is to have
another nuclear capability in a rogue regime,' she said.
US officials several weeks ago said they would not want to see
such a project 'move forward' unless concerns about safety,
environmental damage and weapons proliferation were addressed.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
USA
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