New Delhi – Defying demands of the international community and its own people to free pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi Burma's military rulers on Tuesday extended her detention period, a government source said.
The extension was reportedly read out to the detained Burmese opposition leader on Tuesday afternoon by government officials, who visited her at her lakeside villa in Rangoon's University Avenue, the source said.
The source said the extension is for another six months. However, some reports said the extension is for a year. It was not immediately possible to independently verify the information.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was told of the extension, as her party – the National League for Democracy – today observed the 18th anniversary of the landslide victory in the general election in 1990.
While her party leaders remained unaware of the extension of Aung San Suu Kyi's detention, Nyan Win the NLD spokesperson said it is against the law and condemned the ruling junta for manipulating the law to their convenience.
"The government cannot do whatever it likes. There are laws and if it is true then it means lawlessness," Nyan Win told Mizzima.
He added that laws are meant to be followed by all citizens, and that if the junta has extended the detention period of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, they are violating the law, which they have created.
Meanwhile, the United States based Freedom Now, an advocacy group lobbying for freedom of prisoners of conscience across the world, said the junta's extension of Aung San Suu Kyi's detention is against both international and domestic law.
"The Burmese junta's extension of Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest is a clear violation of its own law and comes as no surprise," said Jared Genser, President of Freedom Now and a personal counsel for Aung San Suu Kyi.
According to Burmese law, a person in Burma who is deemed a "threat to the sovereignty and security of the State and the peace of the people" may be detained for up to a maximum of five years through a restrictive order, renewable one year at a time.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been detained for more than 12 of the past 18 years, was last arrested in May 2003. She completes a consecutive detention of five years on May 24, 2008, according to her personal counsel Genser.
Earlier today, about 20 of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's party youths were rounded up by the police and herded into policed trucks as they were shouting slogans and marching towards her house.
Eyewitnesses said the youths shouted 'Free Daw Aung San Suu Kyi' and marched towards her lakeside villa.
However, it is still unclear where the youths have been taken.
