UK appalled by Aung San Suu Kyi treatment

Wednesday, 12 August 2009 12:00 AM

By Alex Stevenson

Gordon Brown has dismissed the sentencing of Burma's opposition figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi as "purely political".

The prime minister said he was saddened and angry by the "sham trial" which Daw Suu Kyi had been forced to undergo.

She was being tried for letting an American man, who had swam across to her home unexpectedly, into her house.

"This is a purely political sentence designed to prevent her from taking part in the regime's planned elections next year," Mr Brown said.

Shadow foreign secretary William Hague agreed, describing the Burmese junta's move as being "entirely politically motivated".

Mr Brown was in full flow as he ruled out legitimacy for next year's planned elections without Daw Suu Kyi's participation. She convincingly won the last open elections held in Burma in 1990.

"The façade of her prosecution is made more monstrous because its real objective is to sever her bond with the people for whom she is a beacon of hope and resistance," he said.

"I have always made clear that the United Kingdom would respond positively to any signs of progress on democratic reform in Burma. But with the generals explicitly rejecting that course today, the international community must take action."

The prime minister said the European Union had agreed "tough new sanctions" against the regime's economic interests.

And, in a telephone call with UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, he secured agreement that the issue would be discussed further in New York.

Tags:
• asia
,
• foreign policy