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(New York) China, Japan, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should work for the immediate and unconditional release of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters, Human Rights Watch urged today.

Reports out of Burma indicate that Suu Kyi is on a hunger strike and in poor health. It is impossible to verify the reports because the Burmese government has held Suu Kyi incommunicado since May 30. The government denies the reports.

The last time Suu Kyi is known to have received an independent visitor was more than a month ago, when a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross saw her at an undisclosed detention facility.

"Asian leaders should insist on the release of political detainees, and, in the interim, that diplomats and humanitarian agencies be allowed unmonitored visits to them," said Brad Adams, executive director of the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch. "Asian leaders have said they would press for change in Burma. It's time to make good on that commitment."

On June 17, ASEAN called for national reconciliation in Burma and the early release of political detainees. But the Southeast Asian organization has done little to follow up.

China, viewed as the Burmese government's biggest supporter, has rejected attempts by the United States and the European Union to use economic pressure to change the Burmese government's policies. Japan, another major donor, recently froze any new economic aid to Burma.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate, has been detained since May, along with 17 members of her opposition party, the National League for Democracy. The group was traveling through northern Burma, attracting large crowds of supporters, when they were attacked by members of the Union Solidarity Development Association, a government-created organization. The Burmese government has acknowledged that four of Suu Kyi's supporters were killed in that attack. Opposition sources claim many more deaths and injuries, as well as the arrest of a large number of Suu Kyi's supporters.

At the time, Human Rights Watch said the incident "looks like a deliberate attempt by the government to provoke violence to justify a crackdown."

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