General

Myanmar rejects final appeal by Aung San Suu Kyi

Activist’s house arrest to end on Saturday, as scheduled

Myanmar (formerly Burma) has rejected the final, largely symbolic, appeal of Aung San Suu Kyi, whose one-year house arrest sentence was set to end Saturday. The 65-year-old pro-democracy leader was convicted of violating national security after an American man showed up at her home and she allowed him to stay over. The man told her that God had sent him to warn her of an assassination plot. Myanmar’s junta made it illegal for Suu Kyi to have foreign visitors and she has been under close watch ever since she won a landslide victory in 1990, which the military refused recognize. In 1991, Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize for bravely insisting on democracy. With Suu Kyi safely locked up last week, Myanmar held its first election since 1990. Suu Kyi’s party refused to participate. According to officials, the army-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party won 80 per cent of the vote.

Toronto Sun

L.A. Times

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