Bruni calls for Suu Kyi’s release

CARLA Bruni-Sarkozy has sent an open letter to the government of Burma demanding the release of democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi.

In the letter, the wife of President Nicolas Sarkozy stressed that putting the Nobel Peace Prize laureate behind bars “suffocated the hopes of democracy in Burma.”

Aung San Suu Kyi is currently detained under the State Protection Act, which allows the military regime to hold people without a trial if they are considered a threat.

The letter said Ms Bruni-Sarkozy wanted everyone in her country to speak up “who finds the fate reserved for this woman intolerable.”

Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested last week for having broken the conditions of her house arrest, which would have expired on May 27.

She risks three to five years further imprisonment.

The new charges are widely seen as a pretext to keep Suu Kyi out of elections scheduled for next spring as the culmination of the regime's "road map to democracy," which critics say is an attempt to legitimise continued military control.

Photo: AFP