Aung San Suu Kyi

Wellington, June 2 NZPA - New Zealand MPs today called on the military rulers of Myanmar to let democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi stand in upcoming elections.

Labour MP Maryan Street, who is also chairwoman of the Cross-Party Parliamentary Group on Burma (Myanmar), moved the motion in Parliament today and it was passed unanimously.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi led the National League for Democracy to victory in May 1990 but was not allowed to take office.

"Suu Kyi has spent most of the past two decades locked up in jail or under house arrest. The elections in Burma, planned for later this year, will be a sham if Suu Kyi is not permitted to contest them again," Ms Street said.

"Her release from house arrest and the reinstatement of her democratic rights, together with the release of the estimated 2200 other political prisoners held by the junta, are the only things which will make these elections credible in the eyes of the world."

Labour MP Chris Carter provided MPs with the Partners Human Rights Report on Displaced Childhoods.

"The atrocities and dislocation of people, especially children, perpetrated by the military rulers of Burma need to be brought to the attention of the world and I was keen to place this report on the table in Parliament, allowing it to be accessed by the public at any time."

Suu Kyi's lawyers have submitted a request for a special appeal against her house arrest.

She has already lost two appeals against an August 2009 conviction, most recently at the country's High Court in February. Her last legal option is the Special Appellate Bench, a multi-judge panel in the remote administrative capital of Naypyitaw.

The 64-year-old Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for 14 of the past 20 years. In August 2009, she was convicted of violating the terms of her house arrest for briefly sheltering an American who swam uninvited to her home, and she was ordered to serve three years in prison with hard labour. The trial drew global condemnation.

Suu Kyi's sentence was commuted to 18 months of extended house arrest, which would keep her detained through elections planned for later this year. An initial appeal was rejected in October 2009 and upheld by the High Court in February.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy Party, which won the country's last election in 1990 but was not allowed to take power, was disbanded last week after refusing to register for the upcoming polls.

The party has denounced new election laws as undemocratic and declined to register as required, which meant it was automatically dissolved.