Burma’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party on Tuesday urged the early release of Burma’s former ‘de facto leader’ Aung San Suu Kyi and all existing political prisoners to pave the way for peace in the Asian country.
On the occasion of the second anniversary of the general election held on November 8, 2020, prior to the coup, the formation has called on the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its major international partners to exert greater pressure for the release of Suu Kyi and other senior officials imprisoned since the military uprising.
He pointed out that the Burmese crisis «can only be resolved through meetings between civil society representatives and foreign special envoys», according to the newspaper ‘The Irrawaddy’.
Burma has been plunged into a serious crisis since the coup d’état of 2021 after the military called the elections held four months earlier a fraud.
The military has launched a crackdown on protesters and activists advocating for the restoration of democracy and an end to military rule in Burma. So far, more than 2,400 people have been killed since the coup.
Although ASEAN outlined a five-step ‘roadmap’ in April 2021 to try to reduce violence and pave the way for dialogue, the parties have failed to properly implement the program. Both ASEAN and UN special envoys have not had access to Suu Kyi in prison during their visits to the Asian country.
Now, the formation insists that the international community «must take into account that focusing on solving the immediate problems in the country may lead to an escalation of the conflict».
The junta, for its part, has pledged to hold general elections in 2023, but Suu Kyi’s party considers that «they will be neither free nor credible», as well as «fraudulent».
