UN rights experts ask Myanmar to release Suu Kyi

GENEVA, May 10 (Reuters) Thirteen UN human rights experts called on Myanmar today to release Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, whose latest four-year detention term is due to end on May 27.

Suu Kyi, one of the world's most famous campaigners, has been in prison or house arrest for 11 of the past 17 years without charge or trial.

The UN experts, who include independent specialists on arbitrary detention, freedom of opinion and expression and Myanmar human rights, said junta leaders ought to release Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners unconditionally.

''We believe this would give a significant sign of the government's will to initiate a genuine and effective transition towards democracy,'' they said in a statement released in Geneva.

''The stability of Myanmar is not well served by the arrest and detention of several political leaders or by the severe and sustained restrictions on the exercise of civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights,'' they said.

The former Burma has been under military rule since 1962.The military government ignored a 1990 landslide victory by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party.

She was meant to be freed last year, but those in charge of her detention extended it despite a direct appeal from then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. His successor Ban Ki-moon has also urged Suu Kyi's release.

Myanmar authorities have routinely rejected and disregarded criticism of their human rights policies by the U.N. General Assembly, UN rights monitors and world governments.

REUTERS DS ND1613