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Myanmar won't free Nobel laureate

The government will keep democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published May 28, 2006

YANGON, Myanmar - Flouting world opinion and a direct appeal from the head of the United Nations, Myanmar's ruling junta on Saturday extended the house arrest of pro-democracy leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The junta issued an order extending Suu Kyi's detention by another year, the Associated Press reported, citing an unnamed Myanmar government official. No public announcement was made.

The government's rationale for detaining Suu Kyi has been that she could be a threat to public order. Now 60, she has been detained for about 10 of the past 17 years.

A statement from Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party confirmed the extension, but did not specify its duration.

Suu Kyi has spent the past three years under tight restriction, with virtually no access to outsiders. Her work to promote democracy won her the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appealed Friday to Myanmar junta chief Senior Gen. Than Shwe "to do the right thing" and free Suu Kyi to "allow the government and the people, not only to build the nation together, but to focus on the essential issue of economic and social development."

Suu Kyi was most recently taken into custody on May 30, 2003, after her motorcade was attacked by a pro-junta mob during a political tour of northern Myanmar. She has been held at her Yangon residence and not allowed visitors or telephone contact with the outside.

Her last confinement order, issued in November last year, was to expire Saturday, and recent moves had raised hopes she might be released.

The failure to release Suu Kyi disappointed both diplomats working to ease Myanmar's political deadlock, and sympathizers of Myanmar's pro-democracy movement.

European Parliament member Glenys Kinnock renewed calls for a U.N. Security Council resolution against the junta, saying otherwise the junta "will continue to grandstand to the international community and use her as a trump card."

[Last modified May 28, 2006, 05:35:59]