Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has been urged to meet with detained Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi during his two-day working visit to Burma beginning today.

In an open letter to Mahathir today, Barisan Alternatif Foreign Affairs Bureau chief Dr Syed Azman Syed Ahmad expressed hope that the premier will pay the 1991 Nobel Peace prize winner a visit as a gesture of concern for her situation and untiring struggle for democracy in Burma.

Suu Kyi, who is secretary-general of the opposition National League for Democracy and widely considered a symbolic leader of the Burmese democracy movement, was put under house arrest last September.

Her party won a landslide victory in the 1990 general elections but the results was not recognised by military junta that has ruled the country for decades.

Constructive engagement

Syed Azman stated that it was high time Malaysia and other Asean countries engaged in dialogue with both the military junta-led State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) government and NLD.

"It is important for Asean countries to voice our protests and complaints against human rights violations in Burma to the SPDC government, in the spirit of constructive engagement in Asean, because the instability in Burma will not only bring instability to the Asean region, but it also affects the investments of the Asean business community in Burma," he said.

Syed Azman also expressed deep concern with the deterioration of the human rights situation, particularly the increasing level of torture, in Burma.

"While we in BA support your concern for the suffering peoples of Iraq and Bosnia, we also hope that you can show the same kind of concern for the millions of oppressed people in Burma," he told Mahathir.

Human rights violations

SPDC and its predecessor, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (Slorc), have been accused of wrongs ranging from arbitrary arrest, torture and murder to forced relocation of civilians, forced labour, drug trafficking and sexual slavery.

Human rights activists have also documented the forced relocation of more than 300,000 Shan of a population of eight million in the past three years.

Mahathir left for Burma this morning and is scheduled to hold talks on bilateral matters and regional issues with junta leader General Than Shwe, who is the head of SPDC.

It is expected that Malaysia will play a significant role in resolving the current political impasse in Burma given that former Malaysian ambassador Razali Ismail was appointed United Nations Rapporteur on Burma last year.