[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 29, Number 20 (Monday, May 24, 1993)]
[Page 913]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
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.