Myanmar’s military rulers have no legal authority to extend democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi’s house arrest when the detention order expires at the weekend, her lawyer said Thursday.The Nobel peace prize winner will complete her fifth year of house arrest under Myanmar law on midnight Saturday and some experts expect the junta, struggling to cope with the aftermath of a deadly cyclone, to extend her arrest by another year.

Under Myanmar’s State Protection Law, a person can be held without charge or trial for only up to five years, renewable for up to one year at a time, Aung San Suu Kyi’s Washington-based lawyer Jared Genser said.

She was detained initially in May 2003 and her house arrest was last renewed on May 25 last year. “Thus, in a tremendously significant coincidence of timing, she must be released by the end of the day on May 24th,” said Genser, referring to a high-profile international donor conference to be held in Yangon the next day.
The United Nations and the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is a member, are hosting the funds-pledging conference in Yangon on Sunday to help the country cope with the disaster which has left 133,000 dead or missing when it struck nearly three weeks ago.
Two million people are still in desperate need of food, shelter and medicine, according to the United Nations.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is visiting Myanmar this week to press junta leader Than Shwe to accept a full-scale international relief effort, which the general has so far refused.
“The timing couldn’t be better,” remarked Genser, president of Washington-based rights group Freedom Now.
“If the Burmese junta abides by its own law, Aung San Suu Kyi will be able to attend the international aid conference scheduled for Sunday May 25th in person,” he said.
“And if General Than Shwe refuses to release her, it will be a slap in the face to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the ASEAN diplomats who will be on hand to hear the junta’s request for 11 billion dollars of international assistance,” he said.
The Nobel peace prize winner has spent more than 12 of the last 18 years locked inside her lakeside home in Yangon.
Myanmar’s refusal to free the 62-year-old opposition leader has landed the country under US and European sanctions, which were tightened last year after a deadly crackdown on pro-democracy marches led by Buddhist monks.