Suu Kyi faces another year of house arrest

Burma’s military junta is to keep pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for another year, her party said today.

National League for Democracy spokesman U Lwin said it was confirmed over the weekend that Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi had been told her detention would be extended.

He did not give further details of the order or how he learned of it. Suu Kyi’s telephone has been disconnected, and party leaders have not been allowed to visit her home in Rangoon since May.

Suu Kyi was taken into custody in May 2003 after her motorcade was attacked by a pro-junta mob. She was held first by the military, then transferred to house arrest in September last year after undergoing an operation at a Rangoon hospital.

Suu Kyi has been detained several times. Her longest period of house arrest was from 1989-1995.

The junta came to power in 1988 when it crushed a pro-democracy uprising that saw Suu Kyi rise to prominence. It called elections in 1990 but refused to hand over power when the NLD won overwhelmingly.