When Burma’s military regime extended the house arrest of pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on the weekend, the country’s political crisis deepened.

But according to one source with intimate knowledge of Rangoon’s procedures, the measures adopted by the junta to inform the Nobel peace laureate of her continuing detention were a departure from previous practice.

The meeting, on Friday evening, “was longer than usual”, the source said on condition of anonymity. “Normally it takes a few minutes when the police officers read a statement to Suu Kyi. But this time something more was talked about.”

Since the weekend, other Burmese with connections inside Rangoon say they have been able to piece together the message the junta delivered to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, head of the National League for Democracy.

“Last Friday’s discussion between Aung San Suu Kyi and the SPDC (State Peace and Development Council) was to offer her partial freedom as a condition of her release,” said Thaung Htun, the United Nations representative of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma.

“The SPDC wants her to refrain from touring the country, from visiting the NLD office and from getting back to active politics . . . The SPDC is not certain about the new political wave that will be created after her release. They are not ready to release her unconditionally,” he said.

But Daw Aung San Suu Kyi refused to accept the offer, according to Khin Omar, head of the Network for Democracy and Development, a group of Burmese political activists in exile.
“She did not accept the conditions because they were unreasonable given her role. She made that judgement call,” Khin Omar said.

In the days leading to May 27, when Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s period of detention was due to expire, there was growing hope among sections of the Burmese population that she would be released.

The expectations grew after she was allowed to meet UN under secretary general for political affairs Ibrahim Gambari. It was the first contact between the NLD leader and a foreigner in two years.

Close on the heels of her meeting with Gambari’s was a personal request from UN secretary general Kofi Annan to military leader senior general Than Shwe for her release.

Yesterday marked three years since Daw Aung San Suu Kyi began her current period of house arrest following the Depayin attack on her motorcade on May 30, 2003. She is being held under a “preventive detention” law that was introduced to the country in 1875 when Burma was a British colony.

Her continuing detention is expected to add new international pressure on a regime deemed a pariah by the United States government and the European Union.

But comments by Burma’s foreign minister Nyan Win on Monday showed the military is not about the bow to outside pressure. He described Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention as a domestic and not an international issue.

Coupled with the military’s recent media campaign against the NLD, the comments have led some pro-democracy activists to fear the NLD leader’s life could be threatened if she was released.

“We are concerned about her safety,” says Khin Omar, the political activist. “The SPDC will have a back up plan to clamp her down even after freedom.”