Thai media slams extension of Suu Kyi's house arrest

Bangkok, May 26 (UNI) The extension of Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's home-based detention and political isolation by another year by Myanmar's military rulers was criticised by the Thai media, who also accused Southeast Asian nations and regional powers for her plight.

The decision taken by the rulers of Yangon last evening will make Myanmar's famous pro-democracy leader spend her fifth successive year under house arrest.

Ms Suu Kyi, 61, has spent 12 of the last 17 years in detention following the military crackdown after the country's 1990 general election, in which her National League for Democracy (NLD) party won the overwhelming majority of parliament seats.

In a first-time appeal, 59 heads of state and government earlier this month appealed for Ms Suu Kyi's freedom. Former Indian Prime Ministers V P Singh and Chandrashekhar were among the signatories.

In its main editorial today titled ''Suu Kyi towers above her jailers'', Thailand's leading English language daily the Bangkok Post slammed Myanmar's rulers and the international community for not doing enough to secure Ms Suu Kyi's freedom.

''Prolonging Suu Kyi's detention is selfish, unfair and illogical.

Such repressive behaviour has already led to the country being ostracised by much of the world ... branded as a serial human rights violator ... and regarded as Asean's biggest embarrassment," it said.

''When a country is publicly derided as a pariah state held hostage to the paranoid delusions of a leadership which has lost contact with reality, it is time to pay urgent attention to mending fences,'' the Post added.

It pointed out that China was in the strongest position to influence the regime in Yangon due to Beijing's deep economic, military and political ties with the military rulers.

''China does have the attitude, influence and ability necessary to rein in its patron's worst abuses, if it considered doing so to be in its own best interest,'' it observed.

The Post also accused Bangkok of not doing enough. ''It is a shame that our government has not publicly spoken out or done more to secure Suu Kyi's release. Other than Thais have long held her in great respect for her courage, humanitarian ideals, dedication and dignity." ''Like Nelson Mandela in South Africa before her, Aung San Suu Kyi's jailers will never crush her spirit or what she stands for, however much they may try,'' it concluded.

UNI