Myanmar junta denies claims of Suu Kyi hunger strike

MYANMAR’S military government said yesterday that its opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was “physically well” and charged that US claims that she was on a hunger strike to protest at her three-month incarceration were the result of “spin doctors”.

The junta's statement, originally made from the Myanmar embassy in London and reissued from Yangon, was the latest of several fierce denials since Washington made its shock announcement on Sunday that the Nobel peace laureate was refusing food.

"The sudden but well-concerted appearance of a manufactured piece of news relating to Aung San Suu Kyi's hunger strike is another glaring example of spin doctors at work once again," the statement said.

"The Myanmar ministry of foreign affairs has already expressed this suspicion in its statement dismissing the US assertion which may, in fact, have been completely fabricated for political purposes," it said.

"The truth of the matter being that the lady in question is physically well and living in the conditions that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) described a month ago as 'highly satisfactory'."

Representatives from the ICRC met with Suu Kyi on July 28 and are the last independent observers to have verified her health.

Despite the junta's denials, Washington has repeated its assertions and said they were not made "on the basis of flimsy information".

Some analysts have expressed scepticism that the pro-democracy icon has gone on the hunger strike and said it may be a US tactic to increase international pressure on the junta. The US announcement came a day after Myanmar's new prime minister General Khin Nyunt delivered his seven-point plan for the country's shift towards democracy.

Thailand, which has expressed support for the plan, said that on the basis of its intelligence reports, it did not believe Aung San Suu Kyi was on the strike.