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World

Myanmar's Suu Kyi seeks to revive political party

Associated Press
Published | Updated

YANGON, Myanmar – Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi began the nuts and bolts work of reviving her political movement Monday, consulting lawyers about having her now-disbanded party declared legal again, her spokesman said.

Suu Kyi was released at the weekend from 7 1/2 years in detention. On Sunday, she told thousands of wildly cheering supporters at the headquarters of her National League for Democracy that she would continue to fight for human rights and the rule of law in the military-controlled nation.

The Nobel peace laureate must balance the expectations of the country's pro-democracy movement with the realities of freedom that could be withdrawn any time by the regime.

Nyan Win, who is her lawyer as well as a party spokesman, said Suu Kyi met with her lawyers Monday morning and also party officials from areas outside Yangon who have been keeping her political network alive during years of repression by the military government.

He said Suu Kyi will lodge an objection to the High Court that her party's dissolution "is not in accordance with the law." It was disbanded earlier this year under a new party registration law because it failed to reregister for Nov. 7 elections.

Suu Kyi's side says the new Election Commission has no right to deregister parties that were registered under a different Election Commission in 1990.

The party did not reregister to contest the recent elections — the first in 20 years — because it believed the conditions set by the junta for the polls were unfair and undemocratic.

Full election results have yet to be released, but figures so far give a military-backed party a solid majority in both houses of parliament. Critics say the vote was rigged.

The NLD won 1990 elections in Myanmar by a large margin but the regime barred it from taking power.

The legal battle against the party's deregistration was launched in May, when Suu Kyi filed a preliminary lawsuit to have the High Court declare that the NLD remains a political party. The court will hold a hearing Thursday to decide whether to accept the case.