Burma's junta extended the house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi today, a home ministry source said, a move likely to dismay Western nations who promised millions of dollars in aid after Cyclone Nargis.
The 62-year-old Nobel laureate has been detained for nearly 13 years
The source, who asked not to be named, said a government official drove to Ms Suu Kyi's lakeside Yangon villa to read out the extension order in person. The source said it was for six months, although a Yangon-based diplomat said it was for a year.
The 62-year-old Nobel laureate, whose National League for Democracy (NLD) party won a 1990 election landslide only to be denied power by the army, has now spent nearly 13 of the last 18 years under some form of arrest.
Her latest period of detention started on May 30th, 2003 "for her own protection" after clashes between her supporters and pro-junta thugs in the northern town of Depayin. The last of a series of year-long extensions expired on Tuesday.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin today condemned the latest decision and demanded her immediate release.
“I call on the Burmese authorities to rescind this order. Not only would this be a humanitarian gesture to a woman, it would provide real substance and significance to the regime’s goal of a return to democratic government in Burma.”
Ms Suu Kyi was granted the Freedom of Dublin in 2000.
Mr Martin also claimed the recently-passed referendum on a new Constitution as “fundamentally flawed.”
He added: “The results have no credibility. The referendum cannot reflect the real wishes of the people of Burma and has done nothing to assist longterm stability and democratic development.”
Earlier in Burma, the junta arrested 20 people trying to march to Ms Suu Kyi's home.
Although few expected Suu Kyi to be released, the extension is a timely reminder of the ruling military's refusal to make any concessions on the domestic political front despite its grudging acceptance of foreign help after the May 2 cyclone.
Army-controlled media today praised the United Nations for the help it has given to the 2.4 million people left destitute in the Irrawaddy delta, suggesting a thaw in the junta's frosty relationship with the outside world.
The English-language New Light of Myanmar said UN agencies took "prompt action" to provide relief supplies after the cyclone, which left 134,000 people dead or missing.
The paper, the generals' main mouthpiece, also softened the government's line that the immediate relief phase of the disaster was over, saying instead that "rescue and rehabilitation tasks have been carried out to some extent".