Activists call for Suu Kyi's release

YANGON, Myanmar --Hundreds of supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi called for her release during a rally Sunday, as pro-democracy activists urged Myanmar's military regime to honor the 1990 election that the Nobel laureate's party won in a landslide.

About 500 members of her National League for Democracy party shouted "Free Aung San Suu Kyi" as they staged a rally outside the party's headquarters in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon.

The supporters had intended to go on to a Buddhist pagoda in downtown Yangon to pray for Suu Kyi's release, but were blocked by about 100 supporters of the junta, leading to a tense stand off, witnesses said.

The junta supporters shouted at the other side for about 15 minutes, and one NLD elected member was dragged away by them, witnesses said, asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

"Please understand that we are not frightened by your threats ... we will proceed with peaceful gatherings," Min Ko Naing, a prominent anti-government activist, was quoted as telling the junta supporters.

The junta is also believed to be holding about 1,200 political prisoners, most of them elected members of the NLD.

"Release immediately and unconditionally all political prisoners of conscience including members of parliament who are imprisoned for their beliefs," the NLD said in a statement.

The rally comes two days after the junta extended Suu Kyi's house arrest for a fifth year. The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate has spent more than 11 of the past 17 years in detention.

The order keeping her under house arrest at her residence in Yangon was due to expire Sunday, but officials told her of its one-year extension Friday afternoon.

Authorities have since beefed up security near Suu Kyi's lakeside residence and extended barbed wire barricades on her street. Her street was closed to traffic and police with batons were deployed near roadblocks.

In a letter last week to the junta's chief, 59 former world leaders -- including ex-Presidents Bush, Carter and Clinton, and former British Prime Ministers John Major and Margaret Thatcher -- urged Suu Kyi's release.

Meanwhile, pro-democracy activists urged the military junta to accept the results of the 1990 election on Sunday -- the 17th anniversary of the ballot, in which Suu Kyi's party won an overwhelming victory. The results were rejected by the military regime.

Suu Kyi has been held continuously since May 30, 2003, when her motorcade was attacked by a pro-junta mob during a political tour of northern Myanmar. The government considers her a threat to public order.

The military took power in 1988 after crushing vast pro-democracy demonstrations in Myanmar, then known as Burma. When Suu Kyi's party won a general election by a landslide on May 27, 1990, junta leaders refused to hand over power, insisting the country first needed a new constitution. It has never been completed.