Vatican City, Sep 24 (EFE).- Pope Francis has called for the release of Myanmar’s detained ousted leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and offered her refuge at the Vatican.
(FILE) Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi (R) and Pope Francis (L) arrive at the Myanmar International Convention Center in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, 28 November 2017. EFE-EPA/NYEIN CHAN NAING/POOL
The 79-year-old is serving a 27-year prison sentence following a series of trials for charges leveled against her by the military junta, who seized power in a coup in February 2021.
“In Myanmar today we cannot remain silent: something must be done! The future of your country must be peace based on respect for the dignity and rights of all, on respect for a democratic order that allows each person to contribute to the common good. I asked for the release of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi and I received her son in Rome. I offered the Vatican to welcome her to our country,” he told a participant from Myanmar in a conversation with Jesuits during his recent trip to Asia.
The transcription of the conversation was published by the magazine Civiltà Cattolica.
Suu Kyi has been in prison since the military coup, which ended ten years of democratic transition and triggered a spiral of violence that has exacerbated the guerrilla war that the country has been experiencing for decades, with thousands of young people joining armed groups fighting the military.
The junta alleged massive fraud during the general elections of November 2020, the result of which has been annulled and which Suu Kyi’s party won, as it did in 2015, with the endorsement of international observers. EFE
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