Press Release:
Statement by Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff on the continued detention of Aung San Suu Kyi
11 August 2009
Burma’s military junta has further underscored their illegitimacy through the show trial and sham verdict extending the unjust detention of Aung San Suu Kyi.
The Leader of Burma’s National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi won Burma’s last legitimate election in 1990. Her voice is a beacon of hope for the expression of democratic freedom for repressed people in her country and around the globe.
It is now clear that the extension of Ms. Suu Kyi’s detention was designed to prevent her from taking part in Burma’s 2010 elections, exposing the military junta’s true intentions to the world.
For thirteen of the last twenty years, Ms. Suu Kyi has lived under military-imposed house arrest while maintaining a stance of peaceful, non-violent political involvement.
A Nobel peace laureate and honourary Canadian citizen, Aung San Suu Kyi has brought global awareness to the injustices suffered by the Burmese people under the rule of its military junta while standing for their rights and freedoms.
On behalf of the Liberal Party and our Parliamentary caucus, we condemn the sentencing and continued detention of Ms. Suu Kyi, and urge the Canadian government and countries around the world to press for her immediate and unconditional release.
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