Burma Junta: Democracy Leader Should Be Beaten Like ‘Naughty Child’

BANGKOK, Thailand — The Burmese junta has justified its detention of the democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, comparing its laws to anti-terrorism legislation in countries such as Britain and America.According to the government newspaper, the New Light of Myanmar, which is thought to reflect the views of the ruling generals, the 62-year-old has threatened state security and deserves to be beaten like a “naughty child.”“Myanmar is not the only country that promulgates the laws to prevent those who pose a danger to the state,” the newspaper said, listing Britain, America, Malaysia, and Singapore as other examples.“If necessary to guard the motherland and safeguard the lives and prosperity of the people, every government has to promulgate laws and impose restrictions,” it said.The regime changed the name of the country from Burma to Myanmar in 1989.The remarks came as British Members of Parliament voted to approve a Bill to extend to 42 days the period in which terrorism suspects can be held without charge. Critics say the measure will undermine the country’s global moral standing.The article accused Mrs. Suu Kyi and other detainees of receiving money from foreign governments and ethnic rebel groups. “They well deserve flogging punishment as in the case of naughty children,” the article said, characterizing the regime as a”parent of the people” which exercises “great patience.”Mrs. Suu Kyi, the world’s only imprisoned Nobel Peace laureate, won 80% of seats in the country’s last general election in 1990. The regime ignored the result and she has spent 13 years since then in detention. Her latest period of house arrest, in her family’s lakeside home in Rangoon, began in 2003.She is revered in Burma, where she is known simply as “the Lady,” for her opposition to the junta and because of her father, the assassinated independence leader General Aung San. For decades, Aung San was celebrated as the father of the nation.But as the father of the woman the junta portrays as the principal threat to national security, his picture is rarely seen in public and has been dropped from bank notes since Mrs. Suu Kyi entered politics in 1989.Mrs. Suu Kyi’s supporters say that even under Burma’s draconian law the latest extension of her detention at the end of last month was illegal. They claim she can be held for only five years.But the junta yesterday provided its interpretation, saying the law allows her to be held for one year, plus five annual renewals.

Burma Junta: Democracy Leader Should Be Beaten Like ‘Naughty Child’

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