Myanmar's military junta has extended opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest for another 12 months, a Home Ministry source said yesterday.
The source said officials from the military government had visited Suu Kyi in her Yangon home to read her a statement outlining the decision, which came exactly one year after she received a similar 12-month extension of her detention.
U Lwin, a spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, which won a landslide election victory in 1990 only to be denied power by the army, said they had been kept in the dark about any possible extension.
However, a repeat of last November's one-year decision had been expected, he said.
U Lwin, who himself has been under house arrest three times in the past, noted that yesterday was the day when a previous one-year detention order would expire.
"According to the procedure, if there is an extension, today would be the day," he said.
"The whole world has been calling for [the] release of Suu Kyi, but the government has not been responding to any of the calls," said U Lwin, referring to appeals from world leaders for the release of the Nobel peace laureate.
Detention orders come into force when they are delivered and read to the detainee.
Reporters observed a police car entering Suu Kyi's compound at about 9:45am yesterday and departing several minutes later.
The street outside, which is normally open to limited traffic in daylight hours, was closed from 8:30am, and reopened about 25 minutes after the police car departed. More than 20 plainclothes police were deployed nearby.
No one emerged from the house after the police car left, and security personnel remained in the vicinity.
Typically in one of the most secretive countries in the world, there was some confusion as to the exact terms of the extension, with no official word from the government and another home ministry source saying it might only be six months.
Suu Kyi, 60, has spent around 10 of the last 15 years either in prison or under house arrest.
Her latest period in custody started on May 30, 2003 after pro-junta demonstrators attacked Suu Kyi's convoy as she traveled in the countryside north of the capital.
As part of a seven-step "road map to democracy," a National Convention to draw up a new constitution is due to restart on Dec. 5, although diplomats and analysts have dismissed the junta-dominated negotiations as a sham.
Suu Kyi's party, allowed to field just a handful of delegates out of more than 1,000, has chosen to take no part in the convention.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
Japan yesterday heralded the coming-of-age of Japanese Prince Hisahito with an elaborate ceremony at the Imperial Palace, where a succession crisis is brewing. The nephew of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Hisahito received a black silk-and-lacquer crown at the ceremony, which marks the beginning of his royal adult life. “Thank you very much for bestowing the crown today at the coming-of-age ceremony,” Hisahito said. “I will fulfill my duties, being aware of my responsibilities as an adult member of the imperial family.” Although the emperor has a daughter — Princess Aiko — the 23-year-old has been sidelined by the royal family’s male-only
RSS