Ignoring the global call for her release, the Burmese junta continues to hide "The Lady" from the eyes of the world for another year.

"This is a crime, a crime against humanity. I am really concerned for her safety. I hope that there will be some 'brave soldiers' in the Burmese army to stop such crimes and protect her," Hseng Noung of the Shan Women's Action Network said yesterday.

These "brave soldiers", Hseng Noung said, should also engage in a dialogue with the democratic opposition that includes ethnic nationalities to work out a political solution.

The longer the State Peace and Development Council holds absolute power, the cycle of suffering in Burma will continue. It is also about time for the international community to find coordinated approaches to deal with military dictatorship in Burma, she said.

Hseng Noung was speaking from the Thai-Burma border, where many other women from Burma are struggling for peace and democracy to be seen in Burma as well.

"The extension of her detention is unlawful. She shouldn't even be under house arrest in the first place. She is defending human rights, not committing a crime," Nang Yain, secretary-general of the Women's League of Burma, said from the border.

As news of the extension of Suu Kyi's house arrest arrived at the border, Charm Tong also felt she and other women might have to work longer to build peace and open a road to democracy in Burma.

"The Burmese military regime's decision to extend the detention of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi shows their contempt for the rule of law and their unwillingness to end all forms of systematic human-rights violations and oppression of the people and their fear to engage in genuine dialogue with the political opposition, including the ethnic nationalities, to bring about peace and democracy in Burma," said the young Shan activist, who has joined the struggle against the Burmese military regime.

The National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma also warned the junta that its decision to keep the opposition leader under house arrest would give birth to more national heroes and heroines like Suu Kyi, who are dedicated to realising democracy through peaceful means.

In her nearly two decades of fighting for democracy, she has spent more than 11 years sacrificing her personal freedom, but with freedom from fear.

While hundreds of thousands of people fled the military regime to fight from outside the country, Suu Kyi chose to trade off her personal freedom in order to remind the world of the ongoing suffering of people under the Burmese junta.

"I'm not the only woman detainee in Burma; there have been - and there still remain - many other women imprisoned for their political beliefs," she has said.

In her address to the Hague Peace Conference in May 1999, she said a battlefield is not necessarily a place where people are shooting each other.

"In a civil society, where basic human rights are ignored, where the rights of the people are violated every day, it is like a battlefield where lives are lost and people are crippled, because people can lose their lives. And the development of their lives can be crippled by a lack of basic human rights.

"So when we talk about peace, we cannot avoid talking about basic human rights, especially in a country like Burma where people are troubled constantly by a lack of human rights and a lack of justice and a lack of peace."

Suu Kyi has devoted her life to peaceful struggle against the Burmese junta that ignored her landslide victory in the general election of May 1990.

She was first placed under house arrest in 1989 and confined without charges for six years. Her second house arrest began in September 2000 and lasted for 18 months.

Although her freedom is long overdue and no one knows how she leads her life in confinement, she firmly believes that prison walls in Burma cannot prevent political prisoners like her from fading out of the concern of the world, as she wrote in "Letters from Burma" several years ago.

"Prison walls affect those on the outside, too."

Subhatra Bhumiprabhas

The Nation

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Talk on Burma

To mark the 17th anniversary of the last general election in Burma, the Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma, Alternative Asean Network on Burma and the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB) are hosting a talk today on the current situation of the political movement in Burma.

Speakers include Moe Zaw Oo, foreign affairs in-charge of the NLD Liberated Area, Khun MarKoban and Dr San Aung, members-elect of parliament, and members of the NCGUB.

The talk will be held in English with Thai interpretation at the Student Christian Centre on Phya Thai Road in Bangkok from 2pm-4.30pm.

     For more information, call (02) 216 4463 or (02) 611 1211.