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| Monday, 8 September 2003 |
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Suu Kyi not on hunger strike: ICRC YANGON, Sunday (AFP) The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visited detained Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi Saturday and found she was well and not on hunger strike, the junta and ICRC said, contradicting US claims she was refusing food. The United States claimed last Sunday that the Nobel peace laureate had launched a hunger strike to protest her three-month detention by the junta, and repeated its accusations in the face of the junta's fierce denials. "This afternoon the ICRC paid a visit to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to deliver family messages. According to the ICRC they found her well and also that she was not on hunger strike as alleged by some quarters," the junta said in a statement. ICRC communications delegate Jean-Pascal Moret confirmed the junta's statement was accurate. "Two persons visited her and the visit lasted for about an hour," he told AFP. "We completely agree with the press release and we cannot elaborate more." Analysts had said the objective of the US claims may have been to allow independent observers access to Aung San Suu Kyi to show she was in good health amid increasing concerns over the health of the diminutive 58-year-old. Diplomats and analysts agreed that the US pressure had directly led to the granting of ICRC access to her. "I think the government was seriously thinking about how it could deny (the claims) and that's why they granted access," one diplomat told AFP. |
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