Suu Kyi to Receive Monthly Medical Check-ups: Lawyer

By SAW YAN NAING

A lawyer for Aung San Suu Kyi said that the detained pro-democracy leader received her first monthly medical check-up on Sunday, while a spokesperson for her party confirmed that she accepted her first delivery of food since August 15 on Monday evening.

Kyi Win, Suu Kyi’s lawyer, said that the four-and-a-half hour check-up on Sunday was followed by another consultation with her physician, Tin Myo Win, on Monday.

He provided no further details, but added that due to her weak condition, Suu Kyi was unable to meet with Aung Kyi, the Burmese regime’s liaison officer, on Monday as scheduled.

“She is malnourished, and she looks very weak,” Kyi Win told The Irrawaddy.

Meanwhile, Nyan Win, a spokesperson for Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), said that she resumed receiving food deliveries on Monday, after the regime agreed to allow her to receive personal mail and foreign and Burmese magazines.

So far, however, she has not received any mail or magazines, which will be given to her by her doctor under the supervision of the authorities, said Nyan Win.

Some observers have suggested that the Burmese junta’s recent easing of restrictions on Suu Kyi has been in response to growing criticism of her continued detention, which Suu Kyi has reportedly been protesting by refusing to accept food deliveries.

Kyi Win, who last met with Suu Kyi on Saturday, said that he went to court in Rangoon on Monday to discuss a legal appeal against her house arrest, which began more than five years ago.

Suu Kyi has spent more than 13 of the past 19 years under house arrest.

Mark Canning, the British ambassador to Burma, said that he welcomed news that Suu Kyi has been allowed to meet with her doctor and her lawyer.

“But the fact remains that she continues to be detained. She, and the 2,000 other political prisoner who are held in Burma, should be released,” said Canning.

Speaking to The Irrawaddy on Tuesday, Canning also said that the regime’s cooperation with the United Nations must be “measured against benchmarks set by the Security Council—the release of political prisoners, the establishment of a meaningful process of dialogue between the government and the opposition, and full cooperation with the good offices mission of the UN.”

He added: “Examined in that light, progress unfortunately has been minimal.”