Release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar's political prisoners

We welcome the call by ASEAN foreign ministers on 23 July 2009 that the Myanmar government should release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. As the trial of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi for an alleged breach of the terms and conditions of her house arrest draws on into a third month, we ask you, as the ASEAN Secretary-General, to work to unite and focus all ASEAN member states in securing Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's release.

ASEAN as a whole must urgently bring about decisive diplomatic pressure on Myanmar to free Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all other prisoners of conscience in the country.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the Myanmar opposition party, the National League for Democracy, has been detained for over 13 of the past 20 years, mostly under house arrest. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested for the first time in July 1989 as the Myanmar government intensified its crackdown on nationwide pro-democracy protests which began a year earlier. Twenty years on, she's still being denied her freedom. She is a prisoner of conscience, and she should be freed at once, without condition and not be returned to house arrest.

We are also drawing your attention to ten other prisoners of conscience who, together with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, represent the unending political repression in Myanmar in the last two decades. One of these individuals is imprisoned for organizing voluntary relief efforts in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis which hit Myanmar in May 2008, while others are behind bars for protesting in the August/September 2007 anti-government demonstrations. They join other political activists who have been in prison since the 1990s.

Their immediate and unconditional freedom is crucial to the protection of human rights in Myanmar, and to the credibility of ASEAN.

Thank you for your attention.