Nobel Peace Laureates Salute Their Confined Myanmar Peer

Myanmar’s military rulers must free democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest and release all the Southeast Asian country’s political prisoners, many of her fellow Nobel peace laureates declared at a rally here Saturday.

“We are gathered together to salute a giant among women and men,” South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu told an audience of several hundred people who had assembled in front of the Norwegian parliament building despite a cold rain.

“In physical stature, she is petite, elegant and gorgeous,” Tutu continued, his voice ringing with the tones of a preacher. “But in moral stature, she is a giant, so the big men are scared of her and are armed to the teeth, and they still run scared--because they know that this is a moral universe and that injustice and oppression will never have the last word.”

A satellite connection linked the rally to a similar event in Washington at which former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright spoke. Organizers said special events calling for democracy in Myanmar, formerly Burma, were held Saturday in dozens of cities around the world.

President Bush sent a message to Oslo in which he declared that Suu Kyi’s actions “demonstrate how a life of quiet dignity can serve as a powerful force for good.” She “inspires countless people around the world who strive for peace, justice and freedom,” Bush said.

Winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, the Oxford-educated Suu Kyi, 56, has been under house arrest for most of the time since she returned to Myanmar from abroad in 1988. She is the daughter of Aung San, a hero of the country’s struggle for independence from Britain, and that fact is widely believed to have protected her from physical harm.

More than 10 Nobel Peace Prize laureates appeared at the Oslo rally and signed a letter to Gen. Than Shwe, head of Myanmar’s ruling military council. Military governments have ruled the country since 1962, leaving it one of the poorest and most isolated in the world. The current group of generals took power in 1988 after leading a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations.

The military council allowed a parliamentary election in May 1990 but refused to hand over power after Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, won about 80% of the vote.

In addition to calling for the release of all political detainees--estimated at 1,500, including 19 elected members of parliament--the Nobel laureates’ letter urged that informal talks that the military council launched with Suu Kyi last year should be expanded into a full dialogue with opposition and ethnic minority leaders. The goal should be “national reconciliation and the restoration of democracy,” it said.

In the politely phrased two-page letter, the prizewinners said they were “heartened by the release this year of some political prisoners and the relaxation of some constraints on the political process.” More than 100 members of Suu Kyi’s party have been released from prison this year.

The laureates also asked that the Myanmar government allow them to send a delegation of peace prize winners to meet with top generals and Suu Kyi.

Albright used much tougher language in her speech, shown on a huge video screen here.

“To Burma’s leaders, our message is this: You and you alone are responsible for your nation’s isolation and misery,” she said. “It is you who are holding Burma back, betraying Burmese traditions and stifling the energy and enterprise of the Burmese people. Your time is not forever, and you will be remembered with contempt unless you begin now to move toward democratic change.”

In London, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw also issued a statement in support of Suu Kyi.

“Senior members of the Burmese regime have said that a return to democracy is planned,” Straw said. “But we now need unmistakable evidence that change is underway. . . . We hope and pray that the Burmese people’s long wait may be nearing its end.”