Bangkok, June 01: Western governments and human rights activists today demanded the immediate release of Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and accused the ruling junta of sponsoring a campaign of intimidation against her supporters that culminated in a bloody clash killing four people. Suu Kyi and 19 members of her National League for Democracy party were taken into "protective custody" after the violence on Friday night during a political tour by the Nobel peace prize laureate in northern Myanmar.

Military authorities also shut NLD offices across the country and ordered today the indefinite closure of universities and colleges -- in the past, hotbeds of political activism.

"The junta should immediately release Suu Kyi and other leaders of NLD and start a dialogue with her party," said Anna Lindh, the Swedish foreign minister.

British Foreign Office Minister Mike O'Brien echoed that call, and urged "rapid action" by the Myanmar regime against groups which provoked the violence, in which Suu Kyi's supporters clashed with thousands of pro-junta protesters.

"Over the past few weeks I have been alarmed by persistent, credible reports that the Union Solidarity Development Association, and other groups supported by the military regime, have been inciting local people into protests against the NLD," O'Brien said in a statement.

Bureau Report