Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

On Saturday it will be the 65th birthday of Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi and about the 14th birthday that she has spent incarcerated. She is currently serving a three-year jail sentence which was commuted to 18 months house arrest by Burma’s military dictator, General Than Shue. The UN Working Group On Arbitrary Detention recently issued an opinion, No. 12/2010 on the incarceration of Aung San Suu Kyi. It said ‘the continuation of the deprivation of liberty of Ms Aung San Suu Kyi is arbitrary, being in contravention of articles 9, 10, 19 and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’. It further said ‘she was not informed of the reasons for her arrest, had ineffective remedy to challenge her detention, no records were given to her, she was never informed of her rights, she has been denied communication with the outside world and is being detained because of her political views’. This was the fifth opinion. All the opinions find that she is arbitrarily detained. This started in 1992. The latest fiasco arose when a man called John Yettaw, a US citizen, swam across Lake Inya and gained entry to Suu Kyi’s house. This was a misguided adventure by a person who by all accounts is an unwell person. As a result, Suu Kyi was charged with breaching the terms of her house arrest under section 22 of the State Protection Law 1975—a very draconian law.

Burma Campaign Australia have invited prominent women from around Australia, including women in this place, to be ambassadors for Aung San Suu Kyi from 19 June until 24 October and use our public profile to raise awareness of Aung San Suu Kyi’s continued detention and struggle for human rights and democracy in Burma. They have said that our being ambassadors will tell her that the world has not forgotten her despite her having been under house arrest for more than 14 years. It will also tell the people of Burma that we support their struggle for democracy. It is important that they get to hear that message from we who have our freedom.

In a report to the UN Human Rights Council, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar, Tomas Quintana, called for consideration of a commission of inquiry to look into whether war crimes and human rights violations have been committed in Burma. The UK, the Czech Republic and Australia have signalled some support for that, and that support is growing. I know that all members in this place on all sides of politics join together to give support in the particular area.

The National League for Democracy was the party that Aung San Suu Kyi led in the 1990 election. They were not able to take up their positions in parliament because the military dictatorship would not allow them to do so despite their having won 392 of the 485 seats contested—not a bad win. The party no longer exists as a so-called legal entity because of the five election laws that were introduced by the State Peace and Development Council in Burma.

The National League for Democracy released what was called the Shwegondaing Declaration, which set out four benchmarks for the election process to be considered credible or legitimate: the immediate unconditional release of all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi; an inclusive review of the 2008 constitution, which is a military constitution; elections to be carried out in a free, fair, open and inclusive manner under international supervision; and recognition in some way of the 1990 election result.

The regime has said there will be an election sometime this year. By any account, by any benchmark, it cannot be free and fair. There is no way anybody could determine that it would be and nobody expects it to be. It will be a wasted opportunity because there are so many people who are willing to change Burma and transition it into what they want, which is a free country. But it does not happen. More people have been arrested and detained.

Question agreed to.

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