UN rights chief urges Myanmar to release Suu Kyi

GENEVA, May 21 (Reuters) UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour called on Myanmar today to free Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners in the country.

Arbour, the United Nations' top human rights official, said there were more than 1,000 known political prisoners held in detention centres and labour camps throughout the former Burma, which has been under military rule since 1962.

''The release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners would demonstrate a willingness to abide by universally accepted human rights standards,'' she said in a statement released in Geneva.

''It would also, I believe, facilitate national dialogue and free the government and the people to focus on the need to unite the country and to allow the emergence of democratic structures to decide on the way forward.'' The country's military rulers ignored a 1990 landslide victory by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, and has held her in prison or house arrest for 11 of the past 17 years. Her latest four-year detention term is due to end on May 27.

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

REUTERS RJ KP1758