The ASEAN Secretariat
70A, Jalan Sisingamangaraja
Jakarta 12110
Indonesia
Tel : (6221) 7262991, 7243372
Fax : (6221) 7398234, 7243504
Email : public@aseansec.org

Date: September 26, 2003

Dear Sir,

We are Burmese students and dissidents currently residing in the United States and struggling to restore freedom and democracy in Burma. Our campaign called Anti-Dictatorship Peoples’ Freedom Movement for Burma is 74 weeks for now particularly calling for an immediate and unconditional releases of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all the political prisoners.

As known worldwide today, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (1991 Nobel Peace Laureate) our national leader of Burma and her entourage while on organizing tours of upper Burma, have been brutally ambushed by the convicts and hooligans trained and paid by the ruling military regime, the so-called State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) on the late evening of May 30, 2003. According to publicized reports Daw Aung San Suu Kyi suffered head and shoulder injuries while the news of the status of U Tin Oo, Vice-Chairman of the winners’ party National League for
Democracy was tacited Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was immediately detained citing
‘protective custody’ and held incognito.

Moreover, the deterioration of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s health led her to send a hospital for an emergency operation. The reason was not clearly publicized by the regime, but we are grave concern about her health which definitely will be a result of the oppression by the aggressive and repressive regime. Now, she is placed under house arrest by the regime in order to isolate her form the international community including the people of Burma and her members.

The reason we write this letter to you is that geopolitically, we are quite sure at this time, ASEAN is the most dominant organization to put a pressure on the regime effectively for an immediate and unconditional release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi followed by the smooth democratic reform of Burma transferring the power to winners’ party. In fact, we would like to request ASEAN pushing the regime for this issue to be resolved before the ASEAN summit on October 7, 2003.

On the other hand, ASEAN is based on the motto – Peace, Harmony and Regional Stability – as we understand and we heap much praise and appreciation on the regional groupings’ goals of keeping peace and prosperity in the region.

Given this we hereby urge the ASEAN again to demand the pariah regime releasing of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners and cooperating the democratic forces for the peaceful transition of democratic reform that will create a whole new peaceful environment of South East Asian region by shutting down the existence of Burma’s military dictatorship rule and its related border tensions, civil wars and illicit drugs trades around the globe.

In conclusion, we would quote Kofi Annan Secretary-General of UN Kofi Annan’s words , "Today, ASEAN is not only a well-functioning, indispensable reality in the region. It is a real force to be reckoned with far beyond the region. It is also a trusted partner of the United Nations in the field of development…"

Shwe Sin Htun

Coordinator

Organizing Committee

ADPFM