US urges Myanmar to provide Aung San Suu Kyi all medical assistance

by P. Parameswaran

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US State Department expressed deep concern over reports that Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi had been hospitalised and called on the country's military rulers to assure her expeditious treatment.

ADVERTISEMENT The Nobel Prize-winning dissident who has long been under house arrest, is believed down with "acute diarrhoa and possibly worse," an official with one US-based non-governmental group with close links in Myanmar told AFP. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Washington was unable to directly confirm the reports that she had been taken to hospital.

But he said, "We have seen those reports. ... We are, of course, very concerned." "We would call upon the Burmese government to provide Aung San Suu Kyi any and all medical assistance that she might need and to do so expeditiously and to ensure her safety during any treatment." Burma is the previous name of Myanmar.

Defying international demands for her freedom, Myanmar's military rulers in late May extended Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest for another year.

The 60-year-old opposition leader has been detained at her lake-side residence in Myanmar's capital Yangon following a May 2003 attack on her convoy by junta-backed militia in the country's central region.

She was first thrown into prison after the assault but after a gynecological operation four months later, she was allowed to return home - but again under effective house arrest. She has spent more than 10 of the last 17 years under house arrest. It is not known which hospital Aung San Suu Kyi had been reportedly admitted into and how serious her condition is.

"It's sometimes difficult to get good, solid information in Burma, just because of the nature of the place," McCormack said.

Just last month, more than two years after being barred from seeing foreigners, Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed by the junta to meet with UN Under Secretary General Ibrahim Gambari. The UN envoy said after the surprise meeting that Aung San Suu Kyi authorized him to report that she was well, but quoted her as saying she would like visits by her doctors "to be more predictable and regular" and wanted medical assistance for her detained companions.

Hopes had swelled for her release after the meeting, but the junta - accused by various governments and non-governmental groups of human rights abuses - extended her house arrest. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was among world leaders who expressed profound disappointment over the junta's decision.