Myanmar urged to free Nobelist

OSLO, Norway - Nearly 60 former heads of state - including three U.S. ex-presidents - demanded yesterday that Myanmar's military regime release Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest.

Suu Kyi has been in and out of detention, mostly house arrest, since her pro-democracy movement won a landslide election in 1990 and the military refused to hand over power. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

Former Presidents Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter all signed the letter to the dictatorship's top leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe.

The 59 former leaders urged Myanmar, also known as Burma, to release Suu Kyi when her latest term of house arrest ends May 27.

"Suu Kyi is not calling for revolution in Burma, but rather peaceful, nonviolent dialogue between the military, National League for Democracy, and Burma's ethnic groups," said the letter, coordinated by former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik's Oslo Peace Center.

The letter noted that the United Nations and the European Union also have demanded Suu Kyi's release.