Burma Dictatorship To Decide Tuesday Whether To Extend Aung San Suu Kyi's Detention

Almost lost in the clamor over Myanmar's devastating cyclone, the house arrest of the charismatic pro-democracy leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, reaches a deadline for its annual renewal Tuesday.

Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, 62, has been detained at home on and off for 12 of the last 18 years and the year-to-year extension of her term has become an annual routine. Most analysts expect the detention to be extended again this year, and so far during the country's crisis caused by the cyclone the anticipated extension has drawn little international condemnation of the military junta that rules the country.

The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, who recently met with top Myanmar officials and chaired a meeting of 52 donor nations in Myanmar on Sunday, said he had not raised the issue of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi's detention with the government because broader humanitarian conditions following the cyclone were more pressing.

"We must think about people just now, not politics," he told reporters on Sunday

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