Shelter 'targeted' after Suu Kyi visit

MYANMAR'S government has ordered more than 80 people at a shelter for patients with HIV and Aids to leave following a visit by newly freed democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The centre's organisers yesterday said Suu Kyi, released a week ago after seven years under house arrest, visited the shelter on the outskirts of Yangon on Wednesday, promising to provide it with badly needed medicines. She also addressed a crowd of more than 600 who came to see her.

A day after her visit, government officials told patients they would have to leave or face legal action because the centre's permit was not being renewed, said Phyu Phyu Thin, a pro-democracy activist who founded the operation.

By law, homeowners must seek government permission every two weeks to allow visitors to stay overnight.

"We have been allowed to renew our resident permits in the past. I think authorities want to pressure us because of Aunty's (Suu Kyi's] visit to the shelter," said Zeyar, a member of Suu Kyi's officially disbanded political party and one of the organisers of the shelter.

The military regime kept Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, under detention for more than 15 of the past 21 years, and her release last weekend drew thousands of supporters into Yangon's streets.

The shelter, which includes a small wooden house and a two-storey building of wood and thatch, accommodates 82 patients including children, offering them housing, food, medicine and educational opportunities.

Zeyar said health authorities yesterday offered to move the patients to their own HIV centre.