New Delhi (Mizzima) - More than one-hundred Indian Members of Parliament (MP) on Wednesday called on Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh to press Burma's military regime to release Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and restore democracy to the country.
One-hundred eighteen Indian MPs joined the petition initiated by the Indian Parliamentarians Forum for Democracy in Burma (IPFDB), urging Manmohan Singh to secure the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and support the reinstatement of democratic governance in Burma.
“We strongly call on the Indian government to intervene in the current situation to urge upon the Burmese generals through all possible diplomatic and other demarches to release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and impress upon the regime in respecting democratic principles,” said Abani Roy, Member of India’s Upper House of Parliament, in a press conference held at the Indian Women Press Corp. on Wednesday.
Abani Roy added, “As the largest democracy and good neighbor, we have a moral obligation to rescue her [Aung San Suu Kyi] and the country from the devastation.”
The call of the Indian MPs comes as India's government has remained silent for the past month regarding Aung San Suu Kyi’s ongoing trial, while other members of the international community including the United Nations, United States, European Union and Association of Southeast Asia Nations have expressed their concerns and called for the immediate release of Suu Kyi and political reform in the troubled Southeast Asian nation.
Sharad Joshi (MP), co-convener of IPFDB, also urged India's National Congress party, recently returned to power by voters, to review its soft approach to the military regime as its silence over the suffering of the Burmese people has only served to make the regime more aggressive.
“We understand that the military regime in Burma currently headed by General Than Shwe continues to pose a threat to the lives and liberties of hundreds of thousands of innocent people in Burma,” MPs told Manmohan Singh in their petition letter.
Indian MPs also reminded the Indian government that an inclusive political process and free and fair elections in 2010 will not occur if the regime continues to detain Aung San Suu Kyi along with the more than 2,100 other political prisoners.
Dr. Tint Shwe, Information Minister of the exile-based National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB), further articulated in a press conference today that India's government should not only engage with the Burmese regime but should also reach out to the Burmese pro-democracy movement as well.
