Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (Part 7)

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's Biography. Time Line from February 20, 2003 to May 31, 2003.
Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been placed under temporary arrest and her pro-democracy party headquarters in Rangoon closed, the ruling military junta says. Suu Kyi's vehicle was hit with gunfire, but she was not injured, according to press reports. The fighting late Friday left four people dead and 50 injured, the spokesman said. She was taken into "protective custody" after clashes overnight between her supporters and pro-government protesters, an official spokesman said, adding that more than a dozen members of her entourage were also being held. The junta sealed the headquarters of NLD party in the capital amid mounting criticism of the pro-democracy icon by the country's ruling military.
Years
Biography
February 20, 2003
Burma's military government, under the threat of fresh economic sanctions, has invited the United States to enter a dialogue on the country's future economic and political development. The threat of fresh economic sanctions come as Burma is facing a potential banking and financial crisis. Earlier this week, the Central Bank in Rangoon banned money transfers, and limited bank withdrawals, to stem a run on deposits after rumors of possible bank failures. But the regime itself has not been able to deliver the most basic reforms, and the talks between Aung San Suu Kyi and the regime have definitely stalled," Ms. Stothard said. "So it's clear to the international community that the regime has refused to move in the direction of dialogue with their own democracy movement."
February 21, 2003
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi faced a possible jail term Friday after being found guilty in a domestic dispute. She went to Yangon Court early Friday to face charges for a confrontation she had with her cousin Soe Aung, said members of her National League for Democracy party, speaking on condition of anonymity. The court found her guilty of the charge of wrongful restraint of a person for refusing to allow her cousin to enter their property. The punishment is a small fine or seven days in jail, they said. Aung San Suu Kyi was in a stand-off Friday in a Yangon court, refusing to pay a fine after it found her guilty of wrongfully restraining her cousin earlier this year. She was today fined 500 kyat (50 US cents at black-market rates) in lieu of seven days in jail for unlawfully preventing her cousin from entering their compound. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader who has been a constant thorn in the side of Burma?s military dictatorship, was sentenced to a week in prison over her part in a family dispute. Her lawyer, Nyan Win, said she wanted to avoid further incidents and steer clear of confrontations between her cousin and her security guards, members of the NLD's youth wing. Soe Aung counter-sued, charging her with "unlawful restraint of a person".She has been embroiled for several years in a separate dispute about the property, which was given to her mother by the government after her father, the independence hero General Aung San, was assassinated in 1947. Her estranged older brother, Aung San Oo, is suing her for half-ownership of the property, where she spent her childhood and has lived since returning to Burma in 1988.The court in Bahan township, near Suu Kyi's home, ordered her to go to jail or pay a fine of 500 kyat, equivalent to about ?50. She refused and her lawyers lodged an appeal to have the ruling revised. That process usually takes days but shortly afterwards the Western Yangon District Court a higher court with authority over the township announced that the sentence was suspended. The court said it would make a final ruling later.
February 24, 2003
UN special envoy to Burma, Mr. Razali Ismail?s tenth trip to Rangoon intended at the end of this month is being postponed to the end of April. The decision was taken during the Tokyo meeting held during the previous week, according to news from diplomatic quarters. But the news is neither confirmed by Mr. Razali himself nor the UN nor the SPDC. It is not known clearly why the trip is being postponed. Political observers say that Mr. Razali could be taking his time to prepare for the trip as the tension between the SPDC and the opposition is mounting again. U Aye Tha Aung, the Secretary of the CRPP gave his opinions on Mr. Razali?s postponement and the current situations in Burma as follows:"I see that the desire of the current authority [of Burma] to solve the problems of the country by means of dialogue is the main thing compared to the postponement of Mr. Razali?s trip. If the SPDC has no desire for the dialogue or solving the national problems, Mr. Razali?s early or late trip will not make any difference."
March 1, 2003
The NLD members in Kawthaung are being harassed and hampered by local authorities, it is reported. The Kawthaung Township NLD was abolished in 1998 and the secretary of the local authorities U Khin Maung Kyi summoned the members and told them that they have no rights to take part in politics.
March 2, 2003
Shopkeepers and traders arrested two suspicious men in the new Myeik Market, Tenesserim Division and found some anti- Daw Aung San Suu Kyi pamphlets containing ribald cartoons. Later, they were collected by the military intelligence [MI] and the nothing was heard of them anymore. The shopkeepers wanted the two to be handed over to the NLD office at the new ward but the market committee pressurized them to hand over them to the local SPDC office and they had to relent. People from the NLD went to the office to see the two culprits but they were barred from seeing them with fire engines and threatened to arrest them with act 5J.
March 7, 2003
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi calls for Democracy in Burma in Essay in PARADE Magazine. "We are working so hard for freedom because only in a free Burma will we be able to build a nation that respects and cherishes human dignity," writes Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
March 12, 2003
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has renewed her appeal for the country's military rulers to start meaningful political talks. In an interview with the BBC, she said the generals must know that she and her party, the National League for Democracy, were prepared to co-operate with the army to improve the situation of ordinary people. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said she remained upbeat about the country's political future, though she feared that its military leaders were just not ready to talk. She said she thought that the top generals in the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) were simply pretending not to understand what she and her party have been saying. "We have tried to make it very clear to the SPDC that we do not want to be the enemy, we do not want to look upon them as the enemy. We are in opposition to each other at the moment, but we should work together for the sake of the country and we certainly bear no grudges against them and we are not out for vengeance. We want to reach the kind of settlement which will be beneficial for everybody, including the members of the military," she said.
March 19, 2003
The U.N. human rights envoy Paulo Sergio Pinheiro to Myanmar arrived to push for independent investigations into alleged rights violations against ethnic minorities in the country. His weeklong visit - fifth so far - was aimed at updating a report on Myanmar, which will be delivered to the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva at the end of the month. "His duty is to focus on the human rights situation, while Razali's duty is to focus on the political situation. What he is doing is quite different from what he should be doing. He doesn't seem to discriminate whether or not something is in his mandate" says NLD spokesman U Lwin. Mr. Pinheiro met with Burmese officials, including the No. 3 leader in the junta, Gen. Khin Nyunt. He also had a nearly two-hour meeting with Suu Kyi on Friday. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party criticized Pinheiro's last report, saying he has strayed from his mandate by calling the international community to engage the military junta.
March 24, 2003
During his last visit in October, Pinheiro met 16 political prisoners at Insein prison, talking to them for about nine hours. He also visited another prison north of Rangoon where he interviewed 11 political prisoners. U.N. rights envoy to Myanmar Paulo Sergio Pinheiro cuts short a visit to Myanmar after discovering a bugging device taped to the underside of a table when he was interviewing a political prisoner in Yangon's Insein prison.
April 1, 2003
The United States praised Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday and castigated her bitter enemies in the country's junta, in a withering analysis of the country's human rights situation. "Even after years of on-and-off political arrest, harassment and constant surveillance, Aung San Suu Kyi is still wholly committed to bringing democracy and a humane rule of law to the Burmese people," the State Department said in its annual human rights report. "Her tremendous strength of character stands boldly in the face of the military regime's disregard for human rights and democracy, a disregard that extends to abuses such as extra judicial killings, rapes, disappearances, forced labor and forced relocations."
April 3, 2003
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and group are visiting the remote Chin State (southwest Burma) and rally people. Thousands of people in Burma's western Chin state turned up to greet visiting pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi despite threats from local authorities, a spokesman from her party said. "Everywhere she goes, people turn up. They're not allowed to go and visit her, but anyway the people try to see her, to reach her," NLD spokesman U Lwin told AFP. He estimated that around 10,000 people had turned out hoping to catch a glimpse of her last night at Chin state's Gangaw, a town about 560 kilometers northwest of Burma's capital. "The only trouble is the local authorities - instead of looking after her, they are indirectly disturbing her. They are always telling people not to go to her," he said. "This time they haven't put any obstacles on the road, but they are warning people not to see her. They say if they go to her, they will learn a lesson, things like that."
April 12, 2003
NLD denied allegations from the ruling military junta that its youth members had broken laws during a trip to western Chin state by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. On Sunday the junta issued a statement alleging that youth members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) acting as security for their leader had "grabbed" cameramen seeking to photograph or film her. One incident involved several cameramen and another a single photographer, whom the NLD were alleged to have asked police to arrest. "No such things happened during the trip. They never happened," NLD spokesman U Lwin told AFP. However, he said, at one stop on Aung San Suu Kyi's exhaustive 11-day visit to Chin state, members of the junta's USDA -- a pro-Yangon social organization with some 19 million members -- surrounded her car too tightly.
April 15, 2003
In an unusual statement issued yesterday, the SPDC (State Peace and Development Council) stated that they have complete trust in Myanmar's (Burma's) democracy leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Yesterday's SPDC statement says only when the country's issues are resolved through constructive consultation can the country achieve progress and unity.
April 27, 2003
Since Aung San Suu Kyi visited northwest Chin State at the beginning of the month, relations between Burma?s military government and opposition leaders have gone from bad to worse. Relations soured after National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi publicly complained earlier in the week about harassment by the military during her last trip and as well as the lack of progress in talks between the NLD and the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). The military junta, redirecting the blame, has accused the NLD for the deteriorating relations between the two sides.
May 2, 2003
A high-ranking official from the Japanese foreign ministry who travelled with the Japanese ex-PM, Mr. Yoshiro Mori to Burma met Daw Aung San Suu Kyi before leaving Rangoon. He met Daw Aung San Suu Kyi at her home. But the Japanese government and its embassy are likely to issue statements on giving aid to Burma, he added. Mr. Mori and group met the SPDC?s chairman, Senior General Than Shwe and top military leaders and had discussions with them and they left Rangoon yesterday. The Japanese government is the biggest donor to Burma and on the other hand, it is pushing the military junta to urgently start economical reforms and democratic change.
May 6, 2003
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi celebrated the first anniversary of her release from house arrest Tuesday by embarking on a political trip upcountry. She quietly left the capital in a three-car convoy bound for northernmost Kachin State, her National League for Democracy (NLD) said. It marked her longest political journey since she ended 19 months confinement in her Rangoon home exactly one year ago. This trip is expected to take about one month.
May 9, 2003
She encountered a pro-junta group of some 300 people protesting her movement as she arrived in the capital of northernmost Kachin state. She was met by a group of some 300 members of the junta's Union Solidarity Development Association (USDA) as she attempted to cross a bridge to Myitkyina. The members of the USDA -- officially a social organisation with some 19 million members -- were carrying catapults and small objects such as bicycle nuts, he said. When she was about to cross the bridge they stopped her. They put their faces right into the motorcade. In the leaders' last trip to western Chin state, USDA supporters were also involved in shouting slogans against her at several towns. At Shwebo, although the local people were told by the authorities not to welcome Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, people warmly welcomed her. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was said to be very annoyed by the forceful and intrusive photographers of the authorities (who insisted on taking pictures of her everywhere).
May 22, 2003
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her entourage have arrived in Mogok today. National League for Democracy spokesperson U Lwin said Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her entourage were received by a large number of enthusiastic crowds. There were so many people that it took the NLD entourage about two hours to enter the city and reach the place they were staying. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was reported to have delivered a speech in front of the NLD Mogok Office to the people who were there to greet her. Although there had been serious interferences from members of the Kyant Phut [Union Solidarity Development Association] in Bhamo and Myitkyina, no interferences were reported in Mogok today. It is said that local authorities had ordered Kyant Phut members not to even wear their uniforms. U Lwin said it was something exceptional. Local authorities of Mabein, however, resorted to alternative means to disrupt Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's visit yesterday. Police Commander Win Htay of Mabein Police Station and local authority U Sai Myint Thein, using powers of the local authority, was reported to have ordered all boats at Shweli-Mabein jetty to dismantle the engines to prevent the use of boats to travel to Mabein.
Burma's military junta has admitted violent clashes have occurred between democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party and "non-supporters" during her current political tour.
However, the junta says the opposition must accept that some people do not support them.
May 31, 2003
Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been placed under temporary arrest and her pro-democracy party headquarters in Rangoon closed, the ruling military junta says. Suu Kyi's vehicle was hit with gunfire, but she was not injured, according to press reports. The fighting late Friday left four people dead and 50 injured, the spokesman said. She was taken into "protective custody" after clashes overnight between her supporters and pro-government protesters, an official spokesman said, adding that more than a dozen members of her entourage were also being held. The junta sealed the headquarters of NLD party in the capital amid mounting criticism of the pro-democracy icon by the country's ruling military.
Military intelligence agents are now posted outside the offices preventing any entry at the offices in Rangoon and Mandalay. The regime placed numerous NLD leaders under house arrest, surrounding their homes and severing telephone lines, making it impossible for the democracy movement to issue a reaction. To >> (Part-8)

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