By ANTARA,
Yangon : Myanmar`s junta has rejected a legal appeal for the release of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose latest house arrest is due to expire on May 27, her party said on Tuesday.
Lawyers for Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace laureate who has spent more than 13 of the past 19 years under some form of detention, were told of the regime`s decision last week, Nyan Win of the National League for Democracy (NLD) said.
Suu Kyi`s latest detention began on May 30, 2003 under Section 10 (B) of the Law Safeguarding the State from the Dangers of Subversive Elements.
The law allows for a detention of five consecutive years before the accused must be freed or put on trial.
When the regime extended Suu Kyi`s house arrest last year in an apparent violation of the law, her lawyers filed an appeal.
“Since the appeal was the last resort allowed under that law, we will have to explore other avenues to work for her release,” Nyan Win said. A commentary in a state-owned newspaper several months ago said the law allowed for detentions of up to six years.
The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has ruled that the 63-year-old Suu Kyi`s confinement in her Yangon home is illegal under Myanmar law.
But analysts say it is unlikely the military, which has ruled the former Burma for more than four decades and refused to recognize the NLD`s 1990 landslide election victory, will release her anytime soon.
The generals have vowed to press ahead with a seven-step “roadmap to democracy” that should culminate in multi-party elections in 2010, as a replacement to the absolute power wielded by the army since a 1962 coup.
The NLD and Western governments dismiss the roadmap and the army-drafted constitution as a blueprint for the generals cementing their grip on power. (*)