IMPHAL, Nov 18: Solidarity Committee for Burma Democracy (SCBD) in Manipur has expressed its happiness over the release of Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi by the military junta.
Speaking at a press conference today, chairman of the SCBD L Sotin Kumar, said release of Suu Kyi is a good development but the Myanmar government should allow NLD to join political process.
Sotinkumar said that the iconic figure of democracy movement, Suu Kyi was arrested in 1990 along with some 3000 supporters after the general election in which the NLD managed a landslide victory by amassing 392 seats out of 485. Since then she has been kept in an isolated house arrest by the military junta, he added.
He appealed to citizens of India to support the campaign for restoration of democracy in Myanmar so that Burmese nationals who have been scattered across the borders following the military crackdown of 1988 may return home.
He also expressed hope that the recently concluded elections in Myanmar will be a harbinger of democracy in the country in days to come.
The SCBD was established in the year 1991, and since then the committee has been commemorating ‘8888 democracy demand day’, pursuant to the 8888 people’s uprising on August 8, 1988 led by students, seeking to undo pro-military, single party rule in the country. What followed was a bloody crackdown by military junta on the protesting students leading to enforced mass exodus of Burmese nationals to China, Thailand, India, Bangladesh and across the world.
