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 No.342, Geneva, 14 November 2010IPU Logo-bottom

GURIRAB WELCOMES RELEASE OF SUU KYI, CALLS FOR RELEASE OF POLITICAL PRISONERS

After spending the last seven years as a prisoner of the military regime in Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi was released yesterday from house arrest. Ms. Suu Kyi, leader of the country’s foremost opposition party, has spent 15 of the last 21 years under house arrest.

I am absolutely delighted at this news” said IPU President Theo-Ben Gurirab.  He went on to caution against undue optimism. “While I applaud this news, I am also gravely concerned at the fact that after the recent elections, most political prisoners remain incarcerated.

There are currently twenty-one members of the parliament elected in 1990 who still remain in jail.  “We have been pressing for their release for many years” said the chair of the IPU Committee on the Human rights of Parliamentarians, Mexican Senator Rosario Green “and we shall continue to do so.”

Dr. Gurirab said that the IPU stood ready to assist Myanmar in its path towards further reconciliation.

Established in 1889 and with its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the IPU, the oldest multilateral political organisation, currently brings together 155 affiliated parliaments and nine regional assemblies as associate members. The world organisation of parliaments has an Office in New York, which acts as its Permanent Observer at the United Nations.
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