June 11, 2003	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 10, 1424

YANGON, June 10: Myanmar’s ruling military said on Tuesday that pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi would soon be freed and a UN envoy who saw her in custody said the Nobel laureate was in good health.

“The safe custody measures instituted are temporary and they will be lifted as soon as the situation returns to normal,” Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win said in a statement, referring to Suu Kyi’s detention.

United Nations envoy Razali Ismail said Suu Kyi was in good health and good spirits, adding military leaders had given assurances she would be freed as soon as possible.

International concern has intensified over the health and whereabouts of the pro-democracy activist since violence erupted on May 30 as she was touring a provincial town in the north. The junta has detained Suu Kyi at undisclosed locations since the incident.

Razali met Suu Kyi for an hour at the junta’s headquarters in Yangon at the end of a four-day mission to persuade the military to free her.

“I have been given clear assurances by both Secretary One and Maung Aye that they will lift the protective custody on her as soon as possible,” Razali said in Singapore hours later.

Secretary One is military intelligence chief Khin Nyunt and Maung Aye is the powerful army commander.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed news that Suu Kyi was unhurt, but remained seriously concerned about her detention, a spokesman said.

Annan “once again strongly urges the government of Myanmar to release her and other National League for Democracy (NLD) leaders from the continued detention immediately and begin a dialogue aimed at national reconciliation without further delay,” chief UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

Speaking earlier to reporters at Yangon airport, Razali, a Malaysian diplomat, said of Suu Kyi: “She’s well. She’s in very strong spirits. It’s the person I’ve always known.”

Suu Kyi gave Razali no details on casualties from the clashes in which her supporters said up to 75 people died. “She did not see it all. She was in the front car,” Razali said.

Myanmar’s deputy foreign minister said in the statement early findings showed the violence had been sparked when Suu Kyi’s convoy tried to plough through a crowd of bystanders.

ALLEGATIONS UNFOUNDED: It said four people were killed and 48 injured in the violence between Suu Kyi’s supporters and pro-government groups, denying reports that dozens had died and hundreds were injured.

“Allow me to say categorically that the allegations that the attack was premeditated are unfounded,” the minister said.

Suu Kyi has spent much of the past 14 years under house arrest and her latest detention has triggered widespread international condemnation of Myanmar’s military rulers.

“The government will have to get her out of protective custody. That also applies to the others,” Razali said, of NLD leaders who were also detained.

He said the stalled dialogue between the government and opposition, which he brokered three years ago, needed to get back on track.

“I believe this incident has woken up a lot of people in Myanmar itself to the necessity of moving this process very quickly,” Razali said, adding he would return to Myanmar at any time if invited by the government.

INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE: The United States, Britain and the European Union said they were considering more trade and investment sanctions because of Suu Kyi’s treatment.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad called for Suu Kyi’s immediate release and said her detention might affect the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations, to which Myanmar belongs.

After her release from a spell of house arrest in May last year, Suu Kyi made a series of trips to the provinces to meet party workers and supporters.

Drawing big crowds and turning up the pressure on the military to begin talks on a transition to democracy, her trips attracted an increasingly hostile response from backers of the military government.

Dissidents in exile had said members of a pro-government group, which had been following Suu Kyi’s convoy in four trucks, beat to death as many as 75 members of her entourage and villagers with bamboo and iron bars in the May 30 violence.

They said Suu Kyi received head and shoulder injuries although her car sped off soon after the violence erupted. The NLD swept to a landslide election victory in 1990 but was never allowed into office by the military, which has ruled Myanmar in various guises since a coup in 1962.—Reuters