Myanmar junta unmoved, extends Suu Kyi arrest

By Aung Hla Tun

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's junta extended the house arrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday, a move that dismayed some of the Western nations who promised millions of dollars in aid after Cyclone Nargis.

Officials drove to the Nobel laureate's lakeside Yangon home to read out an extension order in person, said a government official, who asked not to be identified.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who just returned to New York from a weeklong aid mission in Myanmar, expressed disappointment but refrained from sharp criticism.

"I regret the decision of the government of Myanmar to extend for a second consecutive year the detention and the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi," Ban said.

"The sooner restrictions on Aung San Suu Kyi and other political figures are lifted, the sooner Myanmar will be able to move toward ... restoration of democracy and full respect for human rights," he said.

He added that his special envoy for Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari, would raise the issue of Suu Kyi with the junta.

The 62-year-old Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy party won a 1990 election by a 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 30, 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 yearlong extensions expired on Tuesday.

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.

Hours before the extension, police arrested 20 of her party's members who were trying to march to Suu Kyi's home.

PRAISE FOR UNITED NATIONS

State-controlled media on Tuesday praised the United Nations for the help it has given to the 2.4 million people left destitute in the Irrawaddy delta, suggesting some thawing in the junta's frosty relationship with the outside world.

The English-language New Light of Myanmar, the generals' main mouthpiece, said U.N. agencies took prompt action to provide relief supplies after the cyclone, which left 134,000 people dead or missing.

U.S. President George W. Bush said he was "deeply troubled" by the extension of Suu Kyi's house arrest and called for political prisoners to be freed, but State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said it would not affect U.S. cyclone aid.

Britain's U.N. ambassador, John Sawers, said he was dismayed "the Burmese have chosen with such insensitivity to renew the house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi at a time when the world is rallying around to try to help the Burmese people."