Suu Kyi broadcast urges more democracy

Myanmar pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has called for more media freedom and the repeal of "repressive" laws in the run-up to by-elections in April. Suu Kyi made her comments in her allotted 15-minute broadcast on state-controlled television, given to all political parties contesting the 48 vacant seats in Parliament. Suu Kyi, sitting behind a desk in front of the red flag of her National League for Democracy party, said the government needed to protect the "democratic rights of the people" and to create a stronger independent judiciary. "All repressive laws must be revoked and laws introduced to protect the rights of the people," she said. "The judiciary must be strengthened and released from political interference." Her broadcast, as well as that of other political parties, was a landmark political moment in a country that for most of the past 40 years has been under some form of military-run government, the BBC reported. Suu Kyi is the 1991 Nobel Peace laureate who has spent much of the past 20 years in some form of detention from house arrest to prison because of pro-democracy comments. She is standing for Parliament in the rural township of Kawhmu, southwest of Yangon, in the by-election April 1. During her broadcast, Suu Kyi clenched her hands in front of her and stared directly at the camera, looking "a little uncomfortable at times," a BBC correspondent said. The event was "new territory for everyone" in Myanmar. "A woman whose face was kept from public view by the old military regime now finds herself addressing the nation on state-controlled TV and radio," the BBC correspondent said. Suu Kyi, 66, also called for the also called for end of the controversial holding back a quarter of the seats in Parliament of military officers appointed by the government, itself made up former junta leaders who resigned their commissions to run as civilians. After a national election in November 2010, the new government of ex-junta members took office in January last year, although many Western countries called the process and result fraudulent. Thein Sein, former junta prime minister, is now Myanmar's civilian president. Initial condemnation of the results has turned to cautious, if guarded, optimism that Myanmar is moving toward a more transparent and representative democracy. This week's broadcasts are one indication that political life is changing. Suu Kyi and her NLD party won a national election in 1990 but was refused power by the ruling military government. Although she wasn't allowed to run in the November 2010 national election because she was under house arrest, the government since has allowed her greater freedom than before to comment on the political situation. Government members have even been seen meeting her to discuss democratic developments. But old habits die hard for the military and its former officers running the government. The BBC reported that a section of her original script referring to the old military government was censored. There remains concern by international observer and non-government organizations groups over the detention of prisoners of conscious, general human rights and ethnic tensions in remote border areas. Tomas Ojea Quintana, the U.N. special envoy on human rights in Myanmar, told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva that the upcoming elections would be a "key test" for the government. "It is essential that they are truly free, fair, inclusive and transparent," he said. "It is clear that there are ongoing and serious human rights concerns that remain to be addressed," said Quintana. "These cannot be ignored in the rush to reform and to move forward." Despite the apparent move toward more democracy, the notionally civilian government and its predecessor juntas remains in conflict, sometimes deadly, with independence movements on its borders. Peace talks entailing compromise on both sides continue between the central government, military and members of the United Nationalities Federal Council, an umbrella organization for many of the armed rebel groups. The UNFC, formed in early 2011, includes the Kachin Independence Organization, the New Mon State Party and the Karenni National Progressive Party.