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U.N. Security Council to meet on Suu Kyi sentence
Tue Aug 11, 2009 12:41pm EDT Email | Print | Share| Reprints | Single Page[-] Text [+]

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council will meet Tuesday to discuss an 18-month house detention sentence passed on Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi as U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said he deplored the verdict.

U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe said the 15-nation council would meet at 3 p.m./1900 GMT for closed-door consultations.

Prospects for concrete action by the council looked slim. China, which has a veto in the council, has always opposed sanctions on its neighbor Myanmar.

A statement issued by the office of Secretary-General Ban, who is currently visiting his native South Korea, said he "strongly deplores" the sentence on Suu Kyi and called for her release.

It said Ban urged Myanmar's military government "to immediately and unconditionally release" Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and to "engage with her without delay as an essential partner in the process of national dialogue and reconciliation."

"Unless she and all other political prisoners in Myanmar are released and allowed to participate in free and fair elections, the credibility of the political process will remain in doubt," the statement said.

Suu Kyi was sentenced for violating an internal security law after an uninvited American visited her house where she was already under detention.

Fourteen of Suu Kyi's fellow Nobel peace laureates sent an open letter to the Security Council Tuesday urging it to set up a commission of inquiry into crimes against humanity they said had been committed in Myanmar.

"It is critical that the regime be held accountable for its crimes and that the full extent of its brutality be investigated," said the letter, which was released in Ottawa.

(Reporting by Patrick Worsnip; Editing by Bill Trott)
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE57A3J520090811