Guardians of the Nobel Peace Prize urged Myanmar to free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the 1991 laureate, in a rare statement on Friday two days before her 60th birthday. "The Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to congratulate her (on her June 19 birthday) and to express our admiration for the courageous way in which she is fighting for democracy and human rights in Burma (Myanmar)," the secretive committee said.
"We ask that she be set free immediately. We are looking forward to the day when democracy again prevails in her country," it said, adding that the 1991 award citation praising her work for democracy was "even more true today".
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has been among world leaders calling for the release of Suu Kyi, who has spent nine of the past 16 years behind bars or under house arrest for campaigning against the military junta, in power since 1962.
Rulers of the south-east Asian country formerly known as Burma refused to hand over power after her National League for Democracy won a 1990 election.
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