Yangon: The party of detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday called for the immediate release of three prominent student activists arrested earlier in the week on the 18th anniversary of Suu Kyi’s movement.

Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi and Htay Kywe three supporters of Suu Kyi were picked up Wednesday at their homes by the military and have not been seen since, said a statement from Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy.

“We demand that the three student leaders who have been arbitrarily arrested be released immediately,” said the statement, which called the arrests, “inappropriate and against the government’s democratic process.”

Myanmar’s military junta has pledged to implement a seven-step road map to democracy that is supposed to lead to free elections though no timetable has been set to complete the task.

The three activists helped lead pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988 and had served lengthy prison sentences of at least a decade before being released with hundreds of dissidents in late 2004.

Min Ko Naing and other former student leaders call themselves the “88 Generation Students Group,” which has been accused by the government of trying to destabilize the country.

Myanmar’s junta took power in 1988 after crushing the democracy movement. In 1990, it refused to hand over power when Suu Kyi’s party won a landslide election victory.

Suu Kyi has spent nearly 11 of the last 17 years in detention, mostly under house arrest, despite worldwide calls for her freedom along with hundreds of other political prisoners.