Nobel Peace prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi sentenced to new house arrest All hopes of a democratic Burma have been stifled – military junta shuts the critic away before the elections

The sentence of the Burmese regime critic Aung San Suu Kyi to a further 18 months house arrest has in the opinion of the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) stifled all hopes for a possible democratic opening of Burma: "The elections planned for the beginning of the year 2010 have therefore finally lost all legitimacy”, said the GfbV Asia consultant, Ulrich Delius, on Tuesday in Göttingen. The junta has systematically looked for a favourable opportunity of locking away the bothersome regime critic during the elections.

"The fact that Aung San Suu Kyi does at least not have to do hard labour is certainly due to the many international protests against the unfair regime”, said Delius. The sentence shows that even this junta cannot simply ignore the many international protests.”

The Nobel Peace prize-winner was today, Tuesday, sentenced to three years hard labour after an unfair court case for purportedly infringing security laws. The sentence was commuted already in the court-room to 18 months house-arrest. Aung SanSuu Kyi has had to spend almost 14 of the past 20 years under house-arrest or in prison.