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Press Release:

CFOB Condemns Suu Kyi's Transfer to Insein, Protest planned in Ottawa

Canadian Friends of Burma
May 14, 2009

Ottawa - The 1991 Noble Peace Prize winner and Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was transferred yesterday to the notorious Insein prison in Burma and has been charged with violating her house arrest. The Burmese military regime will be putting Burma’s most famous political prisoner on trial ostensibly because a foreigner secretly entered her house. American John Yettawa was arrested last week after he reportedly swam across Inya lake to Suu Kyi’s Rangoon residence where she has lived for much of the last 20 years under house arrest.

Regardless of what Mr. Yettaw’s intentions were, his uninvited visit couldn’t have come at a worse time as Suu Kyi’s house arrest was set to expire this month and the military regime will almost certainly be using this incident as an excuse to further her detention. Suu Kyi’s doctor has also been arrested, as has her house keeper and the housekeeper’s daughter.

CFPB strongly condemns the Burmese military regime’s continued imprisonment of Suu Kyi and the ridiculous show trial that is set to transpire. We call for the immediate release of Suu Kyi and the release of the more than 2,000 other political prisoners jailed in Burma's gulags. Says Tin Maung Htoo CFOB Executive Director “this latest attack on Daw Suu is a desperate attempt by an illegitimate regime to remove the National League for Democracy and its leader from the political scene in advance of next years election.”

Ottawa Protest at Junta Embassy planned for Monday
Along with Burma supporters and Burmese activist communities from Ottawa, Toronto, and other cities, CFOB will be holding a protest on Monday May 18 in front of the Burmese military regime's Embassy to protest Suu Kyi's continued detention.

Place: Sidewalk opposite the Burmese Embassy, 85 Range Road, Ottawa (near the intersection of Templeton Street and Range road)
Date: May 18 (Monday), 2009
Time: 1:30 – 3:30pm
Place: Burmese Embassy, 85 Range Road, Ottawa

Direction: For Bus take the #5 and exit at Laurier and Range road (next to Strathcona Park). Or take #16 and get off at Range Road and Templeton if you are on the Bus heading towards Hospital.  For #16 heading to Lincoln Fields get off near Chapel and Templeton and walk one block east on Templeton to Range Road. 

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Media contact: 613-297-6835

The Canadian Friends of Burma (CFOB) is federally incorporated, national non-governmental organization working for democracy and human rights in Burma since 1991. Contact: Suite 206, 145 Spruce St., Ottawa, K1R 6P1; Tel: 613.237.8056; Email: cfob@cfob.org; Web: www.cfob.org