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House Arrest Extended for Burmese Pro-Democracy Leader Suu Kyi

Burma’s military junta extended the house arrest of pro-democracy leader Aung Sun Suu Kyi for one more year. According to CNN, the Bush Administration is calling on Burma’s ruling regime to release Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners immediately and unconditionally. Suu Kyi has been under house arrest since May 2003, when a convoy she was traveling in with members of her political party was violently attacked by government forces, according to BBC News.

“Aung San Suu Kyi is the key person who can change Burma into a democratic society. The leader of the military junta is a very ambitious dictator so he will not allow her to share power,” said Zin Linn, a member of the National League for Democracy (NLD) living in exile, reports the Washington Post.

Suu Kyi endured house arrest from 1989 to 1995 after she emerged as a leader of the pro-democracy opposition movement. The military regime refused to honor the results of the 1990 election, during which Suu Kyi’s NLD garnered an overwhelming majority of the popular vote.

Sources:

CNN 12/3/04; BBC News 12/204; Washington Post 11/30/04

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