The brutal generals ruling Burma – or Myanmar as they officially call it – seem to take us for fools. Today the junta issued a ‘partial pardon’ for the country’s jailed former leader Aung San Suu Kyi and reportedly transferred her from prison to ‘a more comfortable state-owned residence’. By doing this, they hope to score a propaganda win, creating the impression of leniency. It is vital though that the international community does not fall for this nonsense and sees through the regime’s lies.
Aung San Suu Kyi should never have been arrested and jailed in the first place. Her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD) – which is now outlawed by the regime – was re-elected by an overwhelming margin in 2020.
At the moment she should be about halfway through her second term, not detained at the mercy of power-hungry soldiers. Suu Kyi won a clear electoral mandate to govern, which was overturned not at the ballot box but by the military’s commander-in-chief General Min Aung Hlaing at gunpoint in a coup in 2021.
Min Aung Hlaing’s regime has no legitimacy.
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