latter day satyagraha

Aung San Suu Kyi will spend the next year and a half under guard at her home in Rangoon after a court yesterday found her guilty of breaking the terms of her house arrest. The sentence means she will play no part in elections the military junta has promised to hold early next year.

The 64-year-old learned her fate in a few minutes of courtroom drama, witnessed by journalists and diplomats from the same countries that have been calling for her immediate and unconditional release.

Although her sentence falls some way short of the maximum five years available to the court, news that the Nobel peace laureate had again been denied her freedom drew immediate condemnation from around the world.