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Suu Kyi’s house arrest extended

— PHOTO: AP

Outrage: National League for Democracy members raise slogans urging the junta to release Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon on Tuesday.

YANGON: Myanmar’s military junta extended the detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday, ignoring world-wide appeals to free the Nobel laureate, who has been detained for more than 12 of the past 18 years, said an official.

Her period of house arrest was extended by one year, said the official. The government is thought to have also had the option of extending it for just six months. Ms. Suu Kyi has been in detention continuously since May 2003, most of the time under house arrest.Ms. Suu Kyi was personally informed of her continued imprisonment by officials from the Home Ministry who entered her home prior to the announcement. The extension was issued despite a law that stipulated no one can be held longer than five years without being released or put on trial. There have been no public announcements of previous extensions, and there was no immediate official news of the latest development.

Earlier on Tuesday, the police hauled away 20 people who were protesting Ms. Suu Kyi’s detention. Witnesses said riot police shoved members of the National League for Democracy into a truck as they were marching from the party’s headquarters to Ms. Suu Kyi’s home. Ms. Suu Kyi’s house arrest, which has been renewed annually, was believed to expire at midnight on Tuesday, said National League for Democracy spokesman Nyan Win. With the regime saying nothing, there had been uncertainly about the exact expiration.

The decision comes at a delicate time for the junta. It is facing international condemnation for the way it failed the Cyclone Nargis relief effort, with more than half of the 2.4 million survivors needed food, clean water and shelter more than three weeks after the disaster. But few expected Ms. Suu Kyi to be released, despite urging by both the U.N. and some members of ASEAN.

“Their failure to abide by their own law by refusing to release [Suu Kyi] ... is a clear slap in the face to [U.N. Secretary-General] Ban Ki-moon and ASEAN diplomats,” said lawyer Jared Genser, who has been hired by Ms. Suu Kyi’s family to push for her release.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda called for her release on Tuesday, saying it would be a way of thanking the international community for its generosity after the cyclone, which killed at least 78,000 people and left another 56,000 missing. “I hope for the best, but to be frank I’m not optimistic,” he said.

About 20 plain-clothed police officers stood guard outside Ms. Suu Kyi’s lakeside house, while six truckloads of riot police were on guard near the National League for Democracy headquarters. Standing in front of the headquarters, about 30 supporters held a banner calling for her release and chanted: “Aung San Suu Kyi. Release her immediately.” A minute’s silence was held outside the headquarters for those killed by Cyclone Nargis and for “democracy heroes.”

About 200 members attended a ceremony inside the headquarters to mark the 18th anniversary of the party’s landslide victory in 1990 elections, which the junta has never honoured. — AP

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