BURMA:BURMA SHRUGGED off the risk of further international criticism yesterday when it extended the order detaining opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The military regime, already under international criticism for its handling of the cyclone disaster that killed an estimated 134,000 people, renewed the five-year house arrest of Ms Suu Kyi (62).
International leaders observed a studied silence over the Nobel Peace Prize-winner's fate when they met leaders of the Burmese regime two days ago to discuss relief for the 2.4 million survivors of Cyclone Nargis. The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, avoided the issue in talks with the Burmese leader Gen Than Shwe.
The Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) secretary-general, Surin Pitsuwan, who is head of an Asean-UN "task force" responding to the cyclone tragedy, said it was not feasible to tackle the incarceration of Ms Suu Kyi, who has been held for 13 of the past 18 years, at the donor conference.
"That doesn't mean it was not important to us at the conference," said Mr Surin. "But it was felt best to limit ourselves to humanitarian care, rather than complicating it with other issues that were not going to resolved in those three hours."
Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, said: "It is shameful that Ban Ki-moon went to Burma and failed even to utter her name. He is playing into the regime's hands. The UN is crawling on its knees before the regime, afraid to speak the truth in case it affects aid access deals, which the regime is already breaking in any case."
Police detained 20 activists from Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) yesterday when they marched to the villa where she is being held.
Riot squads pulled the demonstrators - some wearing Suu Kyi T-shirts and others the peach-coloured uniform of the NLD - into the back of a truck. Two protesters seated near the vehicle's windows unfurled a poster of Ms Suu Kyi.
The protesters from the NLD, which earlier accused the regime of a "sham referendum" on the new constitution, were demanding Ms Suu Kyi's release ahead of the detention order, which was to expire at midnight last night.
Legal experts acting for the pro-democracy activist said the junta was breaking its own laws by extending the detention order.
Jared Genser, a US lawyer hired by Suu Kyi's family and president of advocacy group Freedom Now, contends she had to be put on trial or freed. But years of pressure by the UN and some Asean members has failed to move the generals.
"Their failure to abide by their own law by refusing to release Aung San Suu Kyi . . . is a clear slap in the face to Ban Ki-moon and the Asean diplomats," said Mr Genser.
But yesterday officials from the regime's home ministry entered Ms Suu Kyi's compound, past the phalanx of 20 plain-clothes police on guard, to inform her that she would be held for another year.
Ms Suu Kyi is isolated from the world, although she has had several visits in the past six months from the UN envoy for Burma, Ibrahim Gambari. The renewal of the order came at a difficult time for the regime, which is pleading with the international community for £5.35 billion (€6.72 billion) for disaster relief.- (Guardian service)