Suu Kyi completes six months in detention

Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and three of her top supporters completed six months in detention today with no sign of when they might be freed, despite international calls for their release.

Suu Kyi was detained at an undisclosed location after a bloody clash between her supporters and a government-backed mob on May 30 when she was touring northern Burma – renamed Myanmar by its military regime.

Eight leaders of her National League for Democracy party were also detained.

Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, was placed under house arrest in late September.

Five of the eight party leaders were freed last Sunday. NLD Chairman Aung Shwe and Secretary U Lwin remain under house arrest, while Vice Chairman Tin Oo, who accompanied Suu Kyi on the political tour, is being held in Kalay Prison in northern Burma.

Red Cross officials have been allowed to check on Tin Oo, a 77-year-old veteran politician, but his wife said recently she is concerned about his health because of the harsh weather in the country’s north.

It is the third time that Suu Kyi has been under detention since 1989, when she was put under house arrest for six years. She was arrested again in late 2000 and released in May 2002 amid hopes that a political settlement was imminent.

She has been held at her lakeside house since September. 26, after spending a week at a private hospital where she had gynaecological surgery.

The only foreigners known to have met with Suu Kyi since her detention are United Nations special envoy Razali Ismail, UN human rights envoy Paulo Sergio Pinheiro and representatives of the Red Cross.

The junta has also allowed Suu Kyi’s personal physicians to visit since her operation, but members of her party were turned away by authorities when they tried to pay their respects during a religious holiday in October.

The May 30 incident all but halted a slow-moving reconciliation process initiated by Razali in late 2000 in an effort to bridge Burma’s political divide.

Three months after the clash, however, the junta unveiled a seven-point “road map” to democracy, which outlined a path to national elections and a new government, but provided no details or timeline.

Suu Kyi reportedly told Razali in October that she could work with the government’s road map, but told Pinheiro that she would not accept freedom from house arrest until her party members were also released.