The Irrawaddy Burma Election 2010

Home NEWS Suu Kyi 'Happy' with NLD Decision: Lawyers

Suu Kyi 'Happy' with NLD Decision: Lawyers

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Detained Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has told her lawyers that she is happy with her party's decision not to register.

Detained Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi told her lawyers that she is happy with her party's decision not to register, according to one of her lawyers.

Suu Kyi made the comment in a meeting with two of her lawyers on Tuesday, said Kyi Win. On March 29, Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), decided not to register for this year's general election, opening the way for the regime to ban the party as of May 7.

Suu-KyiSuu Kyi urged her lawyers to pursue legal procedures against the regime's unjust election laws, Kyi Win said.

“Daw Suu told us to continue legal efforts against the unjust laws,” said Kyi Win, who is also an official of the NLD, adding that the party leaders, chairman Aung Shwe and Vice Chairman Tin Oo, will probably send a letter to Burma's attorney-general to take up further legal complaints about the election laws.

Last month, the party leaders filed a lawsuit against military junta chief Snr-Gen Than Shwe at the country's supreme court stating the regime's election laws are unjust and one-sided. But the court refused to handle the case, saying it had no power over the issue.

A party source said that through her lawyers, Suu Kyi has asked not only the NLD party, but also other ethnic political parties and even families of political prisoners, to take up legal proceedings against the election laws.

On Tuesday, the party publicly apologized to its supporters across the country for “the unsuccessful struggle for democracy” that it had waged for more than 20 years, attributing the failure to the regime's persecution.

Parties have until May 7 to register for the upcoming election or will cease to exist, according to the election laws. Some observers view the party decision not to register as naïve, pointing out that the party has driven itself into a dead-end by doing exactly what the regime wants it to do.

 

Quotable

Nyan_win80"Once her [Aung San Suu Kyi's] sentence expires in November, and that notion is not disputed, it is our understanding that she will have served her sentence."
—Nyan Win, the foreign minister of Burma

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