LONDON, June 19 Kyodo Britain con...

LONDON, June 19 Kyodo

Britain confirmed Thursday that Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is being held at the Insein jail in succession the outskirts of the Myanmar capital Yangon.

Foreign Office Minister Mike O'Brien said in a statement that he was ''appalled'' to learn that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate was being detained in a two-room cot inside the ''notorious'' prison.

The Myanmar junta detained Suu Kyi and other leaders of the National League for Democracy onward May 30 in northern Myanmar following a clash between Suu Kyi's supporters and backers of the regime. More than 50 folks were killed or injured in the confrontation.

''I understand that she continues to wear the clothes in which she was arrested,'' O'Brien said.

O'Brien said Suu Kyi is being held subject to the 1975 State Protection Law, which he describes as the greatest in number draconian law enacted by the agency of the Myanmar junta. The law, O'Brien said, allows for detention without access to family or lawyers for 180 days at a time up to a total of five years, with no contemplation of appeal.

''This completely discredits the regime's claim that she is being held in 'protective custody','' O'Brien said.

O'Brien urg the Myanmar junta to release Suu Kyi and all other political prisoners immediately.

''The international community will not stand idly by way of while the military regime continues to abuse the democratic and human rights of Aung San Suu Kyi and the population of Burma,'' O'Brien said, referring to Myanmar from its former name.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo just discovereds International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group