Agence France-Presse
WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush led global outrage at the Myanmar ruling junta's decision on Tuesday to keep democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for another year.
"I am deeply troubled by the Burmese regime's extension of National League for Democracy (NLD) General Secretary and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest," Bush said in a statement.
In common with former colonial power Britain, the United States calls the south-east Asian country Burma.
Bush said that he and wife Laura, who has taken a leading role in Washington on criticizing the junta, "look forward to the day when the people of Burma know true liberty and democracy."
Strong reaction also came from the European Union and Britain. Singapore, current chair of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which includes Myanmar, expressed disappointment.
Myanmar officials Tuesday went to the lakeside Yangon home that has been Aung San Suu Kyi's prison for most of the last 18 years and delivered the news of her prolonged detention during a 10-minute meeting, a state official said.
"Her detention was extended by one year," the official told AFP.
"The United States calls upon the regime to release all political prisoners in Burma and begin a genuine dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi, the National League for Democracy, and other democratic and ethnic minority groups on a transition to democracy," Bush said.
However, Bush stressed that Washington "will continue to help the people of Burma recover from the devastation of Cyclone Nargis" alongside its "support for the Burmese people's long-term struggle for freedom."
The storm has left 133,000 dead or missing and many of the 2.4 million survivors remain in dire need of food, shelter and medication -- exacerbated by Myanmar's obstinacy over international aid -- according to the United Nations and relief agencies.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi's most recent period in detention began on May 30, 2003, when her convoy was ambushed while she toured upcountry.
The junta says four people were killed in that attack, but the party puts the toll at nearly 100, and Bush in his statement referred to "the murderous assault by regime-sponsored thugs on her motorcade."
After the ambush, Aung San Suu Kyi was initially confined at the notorious Insein prison, but was allowed to return to her home in September 2003.
The European Union's special envoy for Myanmar, Piero Fassino said the decision is "all the more unacceptable in that it even violates the maximum duration of five years under Myanmar laws for house arrest."
Earlier Tuesday, security forces broke up a protest and arrested 16 people including a 12-year-old boy, an NLD spokesman said. The protesters were marking the anniversary of the NLD's victory in 1990 elections, ignored by the ruling military junta.
Fassino added: "The simultaneous arrests of several activists of the National League for Democracy outside Aung San Suu Kyi's house confirms a repressive line that can only further delay a political solution to the Myanmar crisis.
"The European Union expresses its alarm and reiterates that the possibility of bringing national reconciliation to Myanmar as well as a democratic transition requires the opening of viable, concrete and sincere dialogue, which cannot happen if the opposition leader is deprived of her freedom," he said.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband admitted he was "not surprised" to learn of the development.
He said Aung San Suu Kyi -- educated in Britain -- was among some 2,000 political prisoners who had "lost (their) freedom for simply expressing a desire to bring democracy to Burma.
"She has now spent more than 12 of the last 18 years in detention. That she will spend her 63rd birthday next month in total isolation is an indictment of the regime," he added.
The city-state of Singapore said it was "disappointed" at the decision in a statement from the foreign ministry.
It added that "this unfortunate development should not be used to politicize the urgent humanitarian efforts for the victims of the Cyclone Nargis, which should be kept a separate matter."