June 11: Yangon: Myanmar’s democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi was feeling better Sunday after suffering from stomach troubles and remained at home under the care of her personal physician, her party said.

“Her family doctor is taking very good care of her. We are sure of that,” said Nyan Win, a spokesman for her National League for Democracy. “The latest information we have is that by yesterday, she was recovering.”

Reports of her illness had on Friday prompted the US State Department to say it was “very concerned” and call on the country’s military rulers to ensure she received prompt treatment.

Nyan Win on Saturday said that the 60-year-old Nobel peace laureate had been briefly hospitalized on Friday for treatment.

But on Sunday he said “it was a misunderstanding,” and that the party was still trying to confirm whether she had been taken to hospital.

Myanmar’s police chief, Major General Khin Yi, said that the doctor had treated her at home Thursday for digestive problems and that she had not left the house.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s doctor could not be reached for comment on her condition, but Nyan Win said the physician could still be caring for her inside the lakeside home where she is under house arrest.

The daughter of the country’s independence hero Aung San has spent more than 10 of the past 17 years under house arrest, with only a short-wave radio to connect her to the outside world.

The junta last month defied international demands for her freedom and extended her house arrest by another year.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been held in detention since a May 2003 attack on her convoy by junta-backed militia in the country’s central region.

She was thrown into prison after the assault but, following a gynecological operation four months later, allowed to return home — again under house arrest.

Just last month, more than two years after being barred from seeing foreigners, Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed by the junta to meet with UN Under Secretary General Ibrahim Gambari.

The UN envoy said after the surprise meeting that Aung San Suu Kyi’s health was good, but reported that she would like visits by her doctors “to be more predictable and regular”.

Hopes had swelled for her release after the meeting, but the junta — accused by various governments and non-governmental groups of human rights abuses — extended her house arrest.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was among world leaders who expressed profound disappointment over the junta’s decision.

Her National League for Democracy party won a landslide election victory in 1990, but the military government never recognized the result.