Martin Uden

I will be watching the proceedings of the Summit particularly closely, but not just because this is one of largest diplomatic summits ever hosted by Korea. As an ASEAN member, Burma’s leader, Prime Minister General Thein Sein, is attending the Summit, which coincides with the last day of the trial in Rangoon of opposition leader and Nobel laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi.   Both Korea’s Foreign Minister and ASEAN leaders have already publicly expressed concern about the treatment of Suu Kyi, who was arrested on May 19 and put on trial following the intrusion of a US citizen into her home, where she was under house arrest.  Her arrest came just over a week before she was due to be released from years of house arrest.

I sincerely hope Summit attendees will take the opportunity in Jeju of continuing to condemn her recent arrest and trial, and urge General Sein to step back from such counter-productive steps.  It is important at this crucial time to keep the eyes of the international community focused on Burma and its human rights abuses.

The world’s public are also ramping up the pressure on Burma’s military leaders.  Last week, a website was launched to campaign for her release.  Huge numbers of the public are adding their messages of support, including many celebrities and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.  You can read the messages of support, add your own and find out more about the campaign at www.64forSuu.org. One feature is that you can add your own 64-word message – something not only our Foreign Secretary, but also David Beckham has done.  And so have I!

In addition, our Ambassador in Rangoon is writing a fascinating series of articles for The Guardian newspaper about the trial – really worth a look at http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2009/may/28/aung-san-suu-kyi-trial-ambassador. 

(Photo: Demonstration for democracy in Burma, A peaceful demonstration in front of the Burmese Embassy in Seoul calling for the release of Burmese pro-democracy activist, Aung San Suu Kyi in 2008. )