London, June 07: Britain has made fresh calls for "immediate international access" to pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, detained by Myanmar's military junta, the foreign office has said. British junior foreign office minister Mike O'Brien phoned Myanmar's Deputy Foreign Minister Maung Win to deliver a "very strong message to the regime about the British government's serious concerns over recent events."
O'Brien said in a foreign office statement yesterday, "We remain very worried by reports that Aung San Suu Kyi has been injured, and I demanded a contact phone number so that I could speak to her myself. The deputy foreign minister denied she had been injured." The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was taken into "protective custody" after violent clashes last week between her supporters and a pro-junta mob while she was on a political tour of northern Myanmar.
O'Brien said that he told Maung Win that “we have credible reports" that there had been "a deliberate and planned attack on Aung San Suu Kyi and (her) National League for Democracy (NLD) and that the numbers of those killed or injured are much higher than the government have led us to believe." "I explained to Maung Win that it was simply not acceptable for the regime to detain Aung San Suu Kyi in this manner and to prevent the international community from seeing or speaking to her.
"It is now a week since the attack and there has been no sighting or word from her,” O'Brien added. Bureau Report