Myanmar junta extends opponent Suu Kyi's detention

YANGON, May 27 (Reuters) Myanmar's military junta has extended the period of house arrest for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Home Ministry source today said.

The source said it was unclear if the extension was for six months or one year.

Security outside Suu Kyi's lakeside home in the capital, Yangon, had been stepped up ahead of the extension of her detention, with armed police and barricades preventing any traffic from passing.

After Suu Kyi was allowed to meet a senior United Nations official a week ago, members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party had been quietly hoping the former Burma's military rulers might release her.

Amid the growing optimism, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan made a direct appeal to junta supremo Than Shwe yesterday to free the Nobel peace laureate when her existing six-month detention order expired this weekend. ''I take this opportunity to appeal to General Than Shwe and the government to release her,'' Annan said in a statement.

''I am relying on you, General Than Shwe, to do the right thing.'' Suu Kyi, 60, has spent more than 10 of the past 16 years behind bars or under house arrest. Her latest stretch of detention started ''for her own safety'' on May 30, 2003 after clashes between her supporters and pro-junta demonstrators.

Today is also the anniversary of the junta's 1990 ballot-box humiliation at the hands of the NLD, which won 392 of 485 parliamentary seats in the first multi-party elections in three decades but was denied power by the military.

Myanmar has been under military rule since a 1962 coup.

REUTERS DKS BD0911