Myanmar’s military junta has extended pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s house arrest by six months, a Home Ministry official said on Monday.
”She was officially informed on the evening of Sunday, November 27,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Nobel peace laureate has been detained since May 2003, with virtually no contact with the outside world. Her house arrest was last extended by 12 months one year ago.
The official could not explain why the latest extension was for only six months, or provide any details about the make-up of the delegation that delivered the notice.
Aung San Suu Kyi (60) has spent 10 of the last 16 years in detention, her supporters say, amid increasingly vocal international demands for her release.
London-based right watchdog Amnesty International on Saturday called her continued house arrest a ”travesty of justice”, while both the United States and the European Union have imposed sanctions on Myanmar for its suppression of the pro-democracy movement.
Earlier this month the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution slamming systematic human rights violations in Myanmar, including extrajudicial killings, torture, rape, forced labour and harassment of political opponents.
The decision to prolong her detention came days before Myanmar resumes its National Convention on December 5, where handpicked delegates are drafting a new Constitution as part of the junta’s ”road map” to democracy.
The convention, which is being boycotted by the NLD, has been widely dismissed by the international community for its exclusion of opposition and ethnic minority voices.
The NLD won 1990 elections but was never allowed to govern. Its regional offices remain shuttered and many of its officers have been detained over the years.
Myanmar, one of the world’s most isolated nations, has been ruled by the military since 1962. – AFP
