Free Suu Kyi, demands Annan

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has demanded the immediate release of detained Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose house arrest was extended for another year by the military regime of the country.

Annan urged the authorities in Myanmar to seize the momentum created by recent announcements that some 9,000 prisoners will be released to also free Suu Kyi and others jailed for expressing their "political beliefs."

The Secretary-General "reiterates his belief," which is shared by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

and the countries of the region, "that Aung San Suu Kyi's continued detention is not not in the interest of the process of national reconciliation and democratisation in Myanmar," Annan's spokesman said Tuesday.

Over the past several years, Annan has been pushing the Government of the South Asian country to include opposition parties such as Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) in a democratic transition, and most recently has been urging it to allow his Special Envoy, Razali Ismail, to visit the country again as soon as possible.