Straw calls for Suu Kyi’s release
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has joined calls for the Burmese democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi to be released.
Burma’s military government is holding Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi under house arrest.
Suu Kyi has spent nine of the last 16 years in prison or under house arrest for campaigning against the military junta in Rangoon that has ruled since 1962.
She will be 60 on Sunday.
Her National League for Democracy party won the 1990 general election only to have the ruling junta dismiss the result.
Burma Campaign UK demonstrators are expected to gather outside the Burmese embassy in London today.
Protests will also take place outside 50 other Burmese embassies and consulates around the world.
Labour MP Vera Baird has said she will be pushing for EU sanctions against Burma when Britain assumes the presidency of the EU next month.
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Suu Kyi’s treatment had been “indefensible” and repeated his demand that she be released immediately along with the 1,300 other political prisoners held in Burma.
Britain ruled Burma until independence was declared in 1948
