FREE Aung San Suu Kyi-CAMPAIGN for DEMPORACY and HUMAN RIGHTS

Aung San Suu Kyi is accused of violating the terms of her house arrest when she harbored an American man who swam to her lakeside house and secretly entered the compound. Critics say the military has seized upon the bizarre intrusion as an excuse to keep Suu Kyi jailed through next year's scheduled elections - the country's first free vote in nearly two decades.

The 64-year-old Nobel Peace laureate has spent a total of more than 14 years confined to her home. Is the only winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in custody. First put under house arrest in 1989, nineteen years ago. She was already under house arrest when her party was declared the overwhelming winner of Burma’s general election of 1990.

Under pressure from the United Nations has been allowed to leave her home twice in the past three months; the last time was last week. Prospect of regaining her freedom any time soon: bleak. Suu turned 64 on 19 June 2009. When first locked up she was 44.Leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), politician and human-rights campaigner ,the main opposition to the military junta. She is the daughter of former Burmese premier Aung San, who fought for the country's independence. Despite Suu Kyi being placed under house arrest in 1989, the NLD won the 1990 elections, although the junta refused to surrender power. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1991 in recognition of her ‘nonviolent struggle for democracy and human rights’ in Myanmar. She was released from house arrest in 1995, but the junta banned her from resuming any leadership post within the NLD and she has been under house arrest for much of the period since 2000.

Throughout the 1990s her situation grabbed international attention as she was not allowed to move freely around Myanmar. In 1998, her husband, Oxford academic Michael Aris, whom she met when studying in England, was refused a visa to enter Myanmar, despite suffering from cancer, from which he died in March 1999.

In August 2000, she was involved in a nine-day roadside protest after not being allowed to travel to meet NLD members, and was placed under house arrest for two weeks and for a further 20 months 2000–02 and again from 2003. This prompted renewed international condemnation of the military government.

The new charges against Suu Kyi - who has been detained for 14 of the last 20 years and was under house arrest at the time of the incident - have refocused international outrage on Myanmar. Judges in Myanmar postponed the verdict on Friday in pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's trial until Aug. 11 - a sign, activists say, that the ruling junta is hesitating in the face of outrage abroad and fears of unrest at home.

"Since she was charged, there has been huge amount of pressure from inside and outside of Burma," said Soe Aung, a spokesman for Forum for Democracy in Burma, a Thai-based, pro-democracy coalition. "The postponement may show they are having a difficult time. In other words, this may show they are feeling the heat especially from outside the country."
Others noted the ruling generals may worry the announcement would set off protests - and so have pushed it to after the sensitive Aug. 8 anniversary of the failed 1988 uprisings.