Myanmar junta unmoved and extends Suu Kyi arrest

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's junta extended the housearrest of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday, a movethat dismayed some of the Western nations who promised millionsof dollars in aid after Cyclone Nargis.

Officials drove to the Nobel laureate's lakeside Yangonhome to read out a six-month extension order in person, said agovernment official, who asked not to be named.

However, a Yangon-based diplomat said it was for a year.

The 62-year-old Suu Kyi, whose National League forDemocracy (NLD) party won a 1990 election by a landslide onlyto be denied power by the army, has now spent nearly 13 of thelast 18 years under some form of arrest.

Her latest period of detention started on May 30, 2003,"for her own protection" after clashes between her supportersand pro-junta thugs in the northern town of Depayin. The lastof a series of year-long extensions expired on Tuesday.

Although few expected Suu Kyi to be released, the extensionis a timely reminder of the ruling military's refusal to makeany concessions on the domestic political front despite itsgrudging acceptance of foreign help after the May 2 cyclone.

Hours before the extension, police arrested 20 NLD memberstrying to march to Suu Kyi's home.

PRAISE FOR UNITED NATIONS

State-controlled media on Tuesday praised the UnitedNations for the help it has given to the 2.4 million peopleleft destitute in the Irrawaddy delta, suggesting some thawingin the junta's frosty relationship with the outside world.

The English-language New Light of Myanmar, the generals'main mouthpiece, said U.N. agencies took "prompt action" toprovide relief supplies after the cyclone, which left 134,000people dead or missing.

U.S. President George W. Bush said he was "deeply troubled"by the extension of Suu Kyi's house arrest and called forpolitical prisoners to be freed, but State Department spokesmanSean McCormack said it would not affect U.S. cycloneassistance.

"We have tried to separate out these two things," he said.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Britain'simmediate focus was also on post-cyclone relief, but thatrestoration of democracy was vital in the long term.

Three weeks after the cyclone's 120 mph (190 kph) winds andsea surge devastated the delta, the United Nations says fewerthan one in three of those most in need have received any aid.

Thousands of beggars line the roads, and droves of childrenshout "Just throw something!" at passing vehicles.

Witnesses say many villages have received no outside help,and the waterways of the former Burma's "rice bowl" remainlittered with bloated and rotting animal carcasses and corpses.

Much of the blame for the aid delay rests with the junta,which has been reluctant to admit a large-scale internationalrelief effort for fear of loosening the vice-like grip on powerthe army has held since a 1962 coup.

SMALL SIGNS

However, top diplomats who helped coordinate a donorconference in Yangon on Sunday said there were small signs ofthe generals overcoming their pride and paranoia.

"I can sense that there is a sense of urgency," SurinPitsuwan, Secretary-General of the Association of SoutheastAsian Nations (ASEAN), said in the Thai capital on Tuesday.

"A sense of appreciation that the world, after all, is notall that hostile on some issues, particularly on humanitarianissues."

Washington told the Yangon conference it was ready to raiseits offer of $20.5 million (10.4 million pounds) in aid if thejunta opened up, but added it was "dismayed" that the generalshad gone ahead with a constitutional referendum in the middleof the disaster.

The result -- 92.5 percent in favour on a turnout of 98.1percent in a poll held with no neutral monitoring -- isunlikely to enhance the credibility of the generals' seven-step"road map to democracy", meant to culminate in elections in2010.

After junta supremo Than Shwe promised Ban that all aidworkers would get full access to the delta, foreign expertshave headed out of Yangon to test whether anything has changed.

Myanmar embassies are also slowly granting more visas toaid workers, although the U.N.'s World Food Programme, which isspearheading much of the emergency relief push, says it iscoming up against reams of red tape at every turn.

"Yesterday was a record, red-letter day with seven visasapplied for and seven issued," WFP spokesman Paul Risley said.

"Every step has required agreement with the government,clearance from the government, approval by the government ofvirtually all of our actions."

Thomas Gurtner, director of programmes at the internationalRed Cross, said it hoped to deploy an initial batch of sixwater and sanitation experts in the next few days.

(Additional reporting by Nopporn Wong-Anan and Ed Davies inBANGKOK; Writing by Ed Cropley; Editing by Kevin Liffey)