Myanmar extends Suu Kyi house arrest
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YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's military junta extended the house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi by another six months on Tuesday, a government source said.
The official, who asked not to be named, said a government officer had gone to the Nobel laureate's home to read out the extended detention order in person.
Oxford-educated Suu Kyi, 62, has been under house arrest or in prison for more than 12 of the last 18 years.
The widely-expected move is likely to dismay Western donor nations which have pledged tens of millions of dollars in conditional aid since Cyclone Nargis hit on May 2, leaving up to 2.4 million people destitute.
The military, criticized for its slow response to the disaster which left 134,000 dead and missing, has slowly opened the isolated Southeast Asian nation to foreign aid and workers.
But the generals have also shown no sign of relaxing their iron grip on the country.
Earlier on Tuesday, police arrested 20 youth members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) trying to march to her home in the former capital, opposition sources said.
A Reuters reporter saw at least six police trucks, a prison van and a fire engine parked near the NLD headquarters before a ceremony to mark the end of the latest phase of her house arrest.
Suu Kyi's latest stretch of detention started "for her own protection" after clashes between her supporters and pro-junta thugs near the town of Depayin on May 30, 2003.
However, her formal house arrest under a state security law did not start until November 27 of that year. It was renewed once for six months, and has since been renewed every year on or around May 27.
The last time Suu Kyi was released, in 2002, she drew huge crowds on a tour of the country, a reminder to the generals of the huge sway the daughter of independence hero Aung San still held over Myanmar's 57 million people.
The NLD won more than 80 percent of seats in a 1990 election, but was denied power by the military, which has ruled the former Burma since a 1962 coup.
(Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Darren Schuettler and Sanjeev Miglani)
