New Delhi - Burma's police chief, Brigadier General Khin Yi, on Sunday denied knowing anything about the hunger strike rumors of detained pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
During a rare press conference in Burma's new capital Nay Pyi Taw, Khin Yi told reporters that at her request, Aung San San Suu Kyi was allowed to meet with her lawyer three times within two months and once with her family doctor in August.
"When they [the lawyer and doctor] reported to us after their visits, they didn't mention that Daw Suu Kyi was going on a hunger strike," Khin Yi was quoted as saying by the government run New Light of Myanmar newspaper on Monday.
Nyan Win, spokesperson for the National League for Democracy (NLD), on Monday said the police chief failed to mention the detained Nobel Peace Laureate's refusal to accept fresh food supplies since mid-August.
"By not mentioning anything about her [Aung San Suu Kyi's] refusal to accept fresh food supplies, it is confirming what we have said," Nyan Win postulated.
Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the NLD, on Friday in a press statement said they are concerned over the health of their detained party leader, who has refused to accept weekly food supplies for over three weeks.
Kyi Win, Aung San Suu Kyi's lawyer, who last met her on September 1, said Aung San Suu Kyi did not give a specific reply when he asked her of whether or not she is on hunger strike.
"She just replied, 'I am well, but I am losing a little weight'," Kyi Win told Mizzima on Monday.
While the government denies any validity to the hunger strike rumor, the NLD and activists suggest she has staged a hunger strike in protest against her continued detention.
Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party won over 80 percent of parliamentarian seats in a 1990 election unilaterally annulled by the military, has been under detention for more than 12 of the past 19 years.
Her latest arrest was in May 2003, following a brutal attack by a junta-backed mob during a political tour in Depayin town in upper Burma. Party members have noted that her current span of detention period has exceeded five years, which according to Burmese law is illegal.
However, the junta's interpretation of the law allows them to continue detaining an individual for up to six years, and in May renewed her detention.
Khin Yi, during the press conference said, "Regarding her detention, I would like to say that all the government has done is in accord with the law. It is doing all the things in accord with the law. It will also continue to do all things in accord with the law."
