Bush calls for release of Myanmar activists

By John Ruwitch

SYDNEY (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday demanded the immediate release of Myanmar activists detained by the army and called on the ruling junta to stop "assaulting pro-democracy activists".

The comments come a day after hundreds of Buddhist monks held a group of government officials for several hours and torched their cars in anger against the military that rules the impoverished Southeast Asian country, formerly called Burma.

"We must press the regime in Burma to stop arresting, harassing, and assaulting pro-democracy activists for organizing or participating in peaceful demonstrations," said Bush in a speech to Asia-Pacific business executives in Sydney.

"The Burmese regime must release these activists immediately, stop its intimidation of those Burmese citizens who are promoting democracy and human rights, and release all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi," said Bush.

Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won a 1990 election, but the junta has refused to be dislodged, and Suu Kyi has been under house arrest since 2003.

More than 150 people have been arrested since August 19, when activists began protests against an increase in fuel prices that nearly froze transport.

Myanmar's military has ruled for the past 45 years and has been accused of human rights abuses.

But the latest crackdown has been one of the harshest since the army crushed a nationwide uprising of monks, students and government workers in 1988, when around 3,000 people are thought to have been killed.