A human rights group has asked the new U.N. Human Rights Council to take up the case of Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The group, Freedom Now, filed a petition to the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on behalf of the 60-year-old democracy leader, who is confined to her home in Rangoon under house arrest.
Aung San Suu Kyi's freedom has been restricted for most of the past 16 years, and the generals who rule Burma last month extended the house-arrest order against her to mid-2007.
The petition asks that the working group issue an opinion that Aung San Suu Kyi's continued house arrest is a violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms as established by the United Nations.
The Bush administration is preparing to introduce a resolution on Burma in the U.N. Security Council in the coming weeks.
It says the resolution will underscore the international community's concerns about the continued detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.
