Suu Kyi to sue Myanmar junta over dissolution

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Yagoon, October 4, : (Reuters), Myanmar`s detained Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi will try to sue the country`s military rulers for dissolving her political party after it decided to boycott next month`s election, her lawyer said on Monday.

Suu Kyi, who is currently under house arrest for breach of an internal security law, told lawyers of her now defunct National League for Democracy (NLD) party to file a lawsuit with the Supreme Court.
“On her behalf we will demand that the court declares that the NLD is still in existence,” lawyer Nyan Win told Reuters.

Legal experts said it was highly unlikely the case would be accepted by the court, which usually rules in favour of the military regime that has kept Suu Kyi in detention for 15 of the last 21 years.

Some even suggested the move could anger the junta so much that it might seek to detain her longer to prevent her from trying to derail the formation of a post election government that is likely to be dominated by army generals.

Suu Kyi`s current term of house arrest is due to expire on Nov. 13, six days after the country`s first election in two decades and at a time when parliament will convene to choose a president.

“I don`t think it`s worth challenging the regime at this point,” said a retired judge in Yangon. “It`s sure to backfire and give the regime a pretext to to extend her house arrest.”

The NLD, which won the 1990 polls in a landslide but was denied the chance to rule, voted in March to boycott the polls because of “unfair and unjust” election laws and the continued detention of hundreds of its members.

The NLD was disbanded last month because it missed a May 7 deadline to re-register as a political party and was therefore declared an “unlawful association” by the election commission.

Without the NLD`s participation, two parties backed by the military are expected to sweep the polls, meaning parliament will be dominated by serving generals or the army`s political proxies.

The National Democratic Force, formed by a renegade NLD faction, is the biggest of the pro-democracy parties but is contesting only 14 percent of constituencies nationwide.

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