US first lady, women senators, push for Suu Kyi release (Roundup)

May 23, 2007, 20:47 GMT

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.