Thailand Seeks Aung San Suu Kyi ’s Release

By Richard S. Ehrlich

BANGKOK, Thailand — Thailand will push Burma “as hard as we can” to free Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, while also opening a new bridge across a river to link the two Southeast Asian nations.

“We would like to see the release of Aung San Suu Kyi. That’s clear,” Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon said.

“We want to see her released, as immediately as possible. We will press hard, as hard as we can, for that,” Kantathi said.

Thailand’s lucrative commercial relations with Burma, also known as Myanmar, have attracted complaints from Mrs. Suu Kyi’s supporters that Bangkok’s elected politicians are too cozy with Rangoon’s ruling generals.

“I have to share with you another secret: Myanmar has sometimes kept me from sleeping — not full nights — but partial. Of course, that [Suu Kyi's house arrest] is a very sensitive issue for Thailand,” Kantathi told the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand on Thursday [Jan. 19].

“We would like Myanmar to accept the foreign minister of Malaysia, Syed Hamid Albar…as soon as possible.”

Kantathi was referring to frustrated attempts by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to send Syed as a representative to Burma, to meet the regime’s coup-installed generals and Mrs. Suu Kyi, and pressure Burma into freeing her.

“We heard that the trip has been postponed because Myanmar had to focus attention this month on the movement of the capital, but nevertheless we have emphasized, and we will of course emphasize,” that ASEAN’s representative should be allowed to visit Burma “very soon,” he said.

“If not January, then February or March. That’s the timetable we have.”

Burma is currently shifting its capital from Rangoon to the central city of Pyinmana.
The secretive generals have kept the move to Pyinmana under tight security, sparking speculation that they were following astrological warnings, or feared an invasion by U.S. forces.

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