Fri 29 May 2009
Filed under: Inside Burma,News
The party of Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said Friday it was “very concerned” for the health of the Nobel Laureate while she is in jail facing trial.
The 63-year-old had suffered a series of health scares in recent months before she was charged with breaching her house arrest in early May over an incident in which an American man swam to her lakeside home.
“We are very much concerned for her health situation. Because of frequent leg cramps at night she has to walk around,” Nyan Win, a spokesman for her National League for Democracy (NLD), told AFP.
“The chief of the (prison) medical team is also trying to find out the reason. Aung San Suu Kyi has said that the chief of the medical team is taking care of her,” he added.
Myanmar’s state-controlled media reported last week that medical specialists had visited her at Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison and she was receiving daily health care at the jail.
Nyan Win also said that final arguments in the internationally condemned trial had been pushed back from Monday until Friday. Aung San Suu Kyi faces five years if convicted.
“The court informed her main lawyer Kyi Win this evening about the postponement of the final arguments until June 5. We don’t know the reason,” Nyan Win said.
He said that he would go to Insein Prison on Saturday to meet Aung San Suu Kyi after her legal team applied to the court to be able to consult with her.
“We hope we will be allowed to see her,” he said.
Myanmar’s military junta has kept Aung San Suu Kyi in detention for 13 of the last 19 years, most of them in virtual isolation at her tightly guarded home by Yangon’s Inya Lake.
She was twice placed on an intravenous drip at her house earlier this month because she could not eat, had low blood pressure and was dehydrated. Doctors also administered a drip last year.
In November 2006, Aung San Suu Kyi had an ultrasound, which is used to screen for a variety of ailments including heart and gynaecological problems, and was given a clean bill of health by her personal physician.