Nava Thakuria
Bloomington,USA:
  While the United Nations Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon is pursuing for the prompt delivery of aids to the victims of Cyclone Nargis in Burmese soil, an American advocacy group demands the release of the detained Burmese leader Daw Aung San Suu by May 25, Sunday.

Freedom Now, an advocacy group, which initiates to set free the prisoners of conscience through legal, political, and public relations advocacy efforts, has raised voice for her release, arguing that her 'ongoing detention under house arrest was a clear violation of international law', stated in a press statement issued by it on May 23 in Washington DC.

Not to speak of international laws, the statement added, the Burmese law itself doesn't allow to elongate the detention of a person for more than five years, it argued.

"Under Article 10(b) of Burma's State Protection Law 1975, a person in Burma who is deemed a 'threat to the sovereignty and security of the State and the peace of the people' may be detained for up to a maximum of five years through a restrictive order, renewable one year at a time," the statement said adding that 'initially detained after the Depayin massacre in May 2003, Ms. Suu Kyi's house arrest was last extended on May 25, 2007'

Therefore, her fifth and final year of house arrest allowable under Burmese law (though found to be in violation of international law) will expire at the end of the day on May 24, 2008, it asserted. The Nobel Laureate Ms Suu Kyi, who has spent more than 12 of the past 18 years in detention, was last arrested on May 23, 2003. The ruling military junta led by the Senior General Than Shwe had kept the lady under detention since then at Rangoon, the former capital of Burma.

"The timing couldn't be better," remarked Jared Genser, the president of Freedom Now. He also disclosed that 'if the Burmese junta abides by its own law, Aung San Suu Kyi will be able to attend the international aid conference scheduled for May 25th (Sunday ) in person'.

The UN Secretary General is supposed to attend a joint U.N. and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) representatives and international donors groups conference in Rangoon on Sunday.

Mentionable that following the personal initiatives of the UN Secretary General, the military rulers of Burma had lately agreed to allow the foreign aid workers, irrespective of their nationalities, to go to the Irrawaddy Delta areas, where the Cyclone Nargis prevailed over on May 2/3 to kill thousands of people and make another thousands families homeless.

The Freedom Now president Genser was straightforward while commenting that, 'if General Than Shwe refuses to release her, it will be a slap in the face to UN Secretary-General and the ASEAN diplomats who will be on hand to hear the junta's request for $11 billion of international assistance'.

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