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Statement on the Human Rights Situation in Burma

May 19, 1993

I was moved by the stories of individual suffering I heard this afternoon and am deeply concerned by the tragic human rights situation in Burma, as well as by the continued detention of Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest since 1989. I strongly urge the Burmese government to release Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners, to respect the results of the May 1990 elections, and to commit itself to genuine democratic reforms.

The Burmese people should know that America stands with them and with others in the international community in the struggle for freedom in Burma.

NOTE: The President issued this statement following a meeting in the Cabinet Room at the White House with a group of Nobel Peace Prize laureates including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Betty Williams, and Kara Newell, who had traveled to Thailand earlier this year to focus international attention on the human rights situation in Burma.

William J. Clinton, Statement on the Human Rights Situation in Burma Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/219621

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