Aung San Suu Kyi

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Britain renews call to Myanmar to release Suu Kyi

| From ap.org

Britain renewed its call for Myanmar's military junta to release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, saying Sunday that people around the world support her and her followers' struggle for democracy.

Britain's Minister for International Defense and Security Ann Taylor used a high-profile regional meeting to show solidarity with Suu Kyi, whose trial for allegedly violating the terms of her house arrest has drawn international outrage.

"The people of Burma have suffered half a century of isolation and conflict," Taylor said, using the former name of Myanmar.

"But Aung San Suu Kyi is not alone. People all around are standing with her and the Burmese people," she told the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual forum of defense ministers, academics, experts and analysts.

Suu Kyi's supporters fear that the military junta will use the trial to keep her in detention through next year's elections, which it claims are part of its "roadmap to democracy." But few believe that the generals will readily give up power.

Suu Kyi, who has been in detention without trial for more than 13 of the past 19 years, has pleaded not guilty but faces up to five years in jail if convicted for sheltering American John W. Yettaw after he secretly swam to her lakeside residence in early May.

"The continued imprisonment of Aung San Suu Kyi is a reminder that we cannot take for granted the institutions of democracy. We say to the generals: Now is the time for transition to democracy, starting with the release of Aung San Suu Kyi."

Suu Kyi's party overwhelmingly won the last elections held in 1990 but was not allowed to take power by the military, which has run the country since 1962.

Taylor's comments came as the European Union was talking of introducing tougher sanctions in response to the trial. The administration of President Barack Obama has also announced it will continue its economic penalties.

Obama renewed sanctions, which were set to expire, against the country after Suu Kyi's arrest.