Statements

The Writers in Prison and Human Rights Committee of the Japan P.E.N. Club wishes to lodge a strong protest against the guilty verdict and three-year prison sentence handed down to Aung San Suu Kyi by a special court in Yangon, Myanmar, on August 11, 2009.

The Myanmar government subsequently commuted the sentence to 18 months of house arrest, but the Japan P.E.N. Club strongly urges it to immediately and unconditionally end the house arrest and to give her full freedom, including the freedom to participate in social and political activities.

Since 1989, Aung San Suu Kyi has been held in custody or house arrest for a total of 13 years and 9 months. By unjustifiably extending her detention, this verdict aims to contain the activities of the pro-democracy movement in Myanmar.

The Japan P.E.N. Club has made Aung San Suu Kyi its honorary member, and over a period of many years we have called for her release and for the release of political prisoners. We have issued a strong protest against the military crackdown and the murder of a Japanese journalist which happened in 2007, and we have strongly urged the restoration of freedom of expression.

With respect to this new reckless act carried out in the face of forceful protests from the international community, the Writers in Prison and Human Rights Committee of the Japan P.E.N. Club wishes to again express its solidarity with all the people in Myanmar who are being denied freedom of expression.

The Writers in Prison and Human Rights Committee of the Japan P.E.N. Club forcefully calls upon the Japanese government, the United Nations and the entire international community to use every possible means to influence the Myanmar government to release Aung San Suu Kyi and political prisoners and to restore freedom of expression.