By IANS,
New Delhi: Reacting to the sentencing of Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi for another 18 months, India Tuesday urged Myanmar’s ruling junta to push the process of political reforms and hoped that the release of political prisoners there will receive “due attention” in the days to come.
“India has emphasised to the government of Myanmar the need to expedite their political reform and national reconciliation process, and have noted the various steps taken so far by the government of Myanmar in this direction,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Vishnu Prakash told reporters.
“We have maintained that this process should be broadbased, including the various ethnic groups. In this context, the issue of release of political prisoners will no doubt receive due attention,” he said.
He was responding to a question on the Myanmar junta’s Monday order to Suu Kyi to serve an 18-month sentence for allowing an uninvited American to stay at her home.
The 64-year-old Nobel Peace laureate has been in detention in Myanmar for 14 of the last 20 years, mostly under house arrest. Earlier, Suu Kyi was sentenced to three years in prison by a court in Rangoon, which was reduced by half by the ruling junta.
The ruling has sparked international outrage and calls for release of Suu Kyi and that of Myanmar’s more than 2,000 other political prisoners.