Suu Kyi hunger strike 'credible'
From CNN State Department Producer Elise Labott
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Aung San Suu Kyi has not been seen in public since late May.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. State Department has reiterated its claim that Myanmar dissident leader Aung San Suu Kyi is on a hunger strike to protest her detention by the country's military government, despite the Myanmar government's questioning of that claim.
"We have what we consider credible reporting from our embassy, but I'm not in a position to go through the sourcing," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Tuesday, adding that the United States has information from sources other than the media.
"We do remain deeply concerned about her situation," Boucher said.
A senior State Department official, who asked not to be identified, said Aung San Suu Kyi's supporters inside Myanmar may not be in a position to receive information about her condition.
The Myanmar activist, whose pro-democracy efforts earned her the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, has been in military custody for three months since a clash between her supporters and a pro-government group.
In a statement issued Sunday, the State Department said Aung San Suu Kyi was on a hunger strike and added, "Burmese authorities have full responsibility for her health, having placed her in so-called protective custody since a May 30 premeditated attack on her convoy."
While not denying the U.S. charge of a hunger strike, a statement released by Col. Hla Min, a government spokesman, questioned where Washington had come up with its information.
Vote not recognized
"Myanmar government as well as governments around the world are confused and we firmly believe it is quite odd for the United States State Department to make such a claim without stating any sources to verify its allegation," the statement said.
"Anyhow, the government of Myanmar shares the view stated by the U.S. government that governments are fully responsible for the welfare of all its political prisoners."
But offering a counterpoint, the statement said: "We also believe that governments are fully responsible for the security, well-being and interest of all its other citizens as well. Especially in our case, on the accountability of maintaining and safeguarding peace, stability and national unity, the interest and care for all the 52 million population of the Myanmar people together with the 135 different ethnic groups living in Myanmar."
Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a sweeping victory in a general election in 1990, but Myanmar's military rulers refused to recognize the vote and held on to power.
A Red Cross official who met with her in July reported her to be in "good health" and said she was being held in "fair and decent conditions."
