June 9: Although the Burmese authority declared his passport null and void on Wednesday, Salai Tun Than, a retired Burmese professor today said that he will still try to re-enter Burma by other means.

”I can’t say out of the blue as to what I am going to do next, but I am trying to enter the country, nevertheless,” said Tun Than, who is now in Thailand and planning to go back to Burma and carry out a solitary peaceful demonstration against the military government on June 19 which marks Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday. “They (the military rulers) are keeping the power of the nation by unfair means. I am going to ask them to return it (to the rightful owners, the people). As they have nullified it (his passport), I want to ask them if they have the rights to do so.”

No, said the secretary of exiled Burma Lawyers Council (BLC), Htay Aung.

“There is an existing law concerning the passport. It is called the Burma Passport Act. There is no clause that says that a passport could be nullified or declared void,” insisted Htay Aung. “Dr. Salai Tun Than left the country and went abroad legally. If they didn’t want to issue the passport to Dr. Salai Tun Than according to the law, they shouldn’t have done it there and then. According to the existing laws, there is no clause that says that a government could declare a citizen’s passport null and void. I want to say that the withdrawal of Dr. Tun Than’s passport by the government is illegal.”