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MYANMAR'S military junta said yesterday that detained opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi deserved to be beaten like an errant child for threatening national security.
Seeking to justify the 62-year-old's latest stretch of house arrest, official newspapers said she and other detainees had been in contact with and had received cash from guerillas and foreign governments. 'Due to the crimes they have committed, they well deserve flogging punishment as in the case of naughty children,' the newspapers said in Myanmar-language and English editorials which are thought to reflect the thinking of the junta's top brass. The editorials claimed that Ms Suu Kyi and others were detained 'in order that they will not be in a position to commit similar crimes again'. The opposition leaders' National League for Democracy won more than 80 per cent of the seats in a 1990 election. But it was denied power by the military, which has ruled the country since a 1962 coup. As the daughter of independence hero Aung San, Ms Suu Kyi exercises enormous personal political clout in the country of 57 million. It is largely out of fear of this that the ruling generals have kept her in some form of detention or other for nearly 13 of the past 19 years. The newspaper commentaries also sought to explain the specific security law under which she is being held. But they failed to clarify whether the extension of her detention order on May 27 was for six or 12 months. In addition, the papers cited Singapore, Malaysia and the United States as countries which had laws to 'prevent those who pose danger to the state'. REUTERS
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