Suu Kyi believed on hunger strike

From:Reuters
Wednesday, 3rd September, 2003
By Darren Schuettler and Prapan Chankaew

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A Myanmar exile group says it believes pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is on hunger strike and receiving medical care at a military compound in Yangon.

"According to our sources, it is confirmed that Aung San Suu Kyi's health situation is breaking down," Zin Linn, media director of the exiled National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, told Reuters Television on Wednesday.

Washington said on Tuesday it had "credible reporting" that Myanmar's pro-democracy icon was refusing food in protest against her detention since May 30 at a secret location.

Independent agencies say they cannot confirm the report, which the military government called groundless.

The U.S. State Department first reported the hunger strike on Sunday, a day after new Myanmar Prime Minister Khin Nyunt promised a "road map to democracy" in a speech three months after Suu Kyi was detained.

Khin Nyunt, also the powerful head of military intelligence, mentioned Suu Kyi only once in his speech -- and that was while criticising her National League for Democracy.

"Our people think Aung San Suu Kyi is unhappy with the road map and she may think it is an appropriate time to risk her life. It may be a last resort for her," Zin Linn said.

Yangon fired another broadside against Washington on Wednesday, accusing it of spreading a false hunger strike report in an effort to undermine the junta's road map, already dismissed by opposition groups as ploy to keep power.

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Tuesday: "We have what we consider credible reporting from our embassy but I'm not in a position to go through the sourcing. We do remain deeply concerned about her situation."

SUU KYI NOTE?

A senior NLD source in Yangon said the hunger strike reports may be rooted in a note sent by Suu Kyi to aides who have been allowed to send her food, medicines and clothing.

"In her note sent very recently to her personal aides, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi asked them not to send her any food at all. She stressed this point by putting an asterisk at the sentence 'No need to send me any food at all'," the NLD source said.

He said some aides interpreted that as a signal she would be released soon, while others were convinced she was fasting.

A Yangon-based Western diplomat said it was possible Suu Kyi would be allowed to communicate with her aides, but any notes would be screened by the military.

"Hunger strikes are not really an opposition tool here. It's not like the IRA in the 1980s," the diplomat said, referring to a series of high-profile hunger strikes by Irish Republican Army activists.

Zin Linn said his group had received reports from junior army officers that Suu Kyi, who suffers from a chronic stomach condition, was receiving medical care at an army base in Yangon.

"A message came out from the army compound and because of Aung San Suu Kyi's health situation, the central military hospital sent a doctor and senior nursing staff to care for her," Zin Linn said.

The government says she is being held for her own protection, but will not say where she is.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, won elections in 1990 but the military prevented her party from taking office. Zin Linn's group was set up by members of her party who won seats in that election but later went into exile.

Suu Kyi has been in and out of house arrest for the past 14 years, and her current detention has drawn international outrage and calls for her immediate release.

She was arrested on May 30 with dozens of supporters after a clash between her backers and pro-government youths.

Red Cross officials, who were allowed to meet Suu Kyi in July and found her in good health, have not been able to confirm the hunger strike report. The July meeting is believed to be her last contact with the outside world.