By DPA,
Jakarta : Senior South-East Asian officials recommended Friday that their foreign ministers issue a joint appeal to Myanmar’s military rulers for the release of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, an Indonesian official said.
Suu Kyi has spent 14 of the past 20 years under detention and last week received an additional 18 months of house arrest for violating the country’s security laws after an uninvited US man swam to her lakeside home.
Officials from the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is a member, met Thursday and Friday to debate a proposal for a common regional stance on Suu Kyi’s continued detention by Myanmar’s military regime.
“The officials agreed that such a joint appeal is a good idea, and they recommended the foreign ministers to take follow-up action,” Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said.
He declined to elaborate on details of the recommendation, saying that Thailand, which now holds the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN, would make a statement on the matter.
Earlier, Faizasyah said that amnesty for Suu Kyi was among the issues discussed by the officials.
The spokesman said Indonesia had urged Myanmar to review the sentence for Suu Kyi and allow her to decide whether she would take part in an election scheduled for next year.
Rights activists have said the sentence was aimed at preventing Suu Kyi from taking part in the election.
Ten-member ASEAN has been criticised from some quarters for being unable to pressure Myanmar’s military regime to release Suu Kyi.
The opposition National League for Democracy, led by Suu Kyi, won the country’s 1990 elections, but the junta refused to recognise its victory.
ASEAN consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.