Goons in Rangoon

There should be little doubt that the plight of Aung San Suu Kyi grows more desperate by the day. The only national leader in Burma worthy of the name has been held under some form of detention for more than half the 13 years since her National League for Democracy's landslide election victory was annulled. During that time she has suffered from periods of ill-health, has been barred effectively from travelling abroad, has lost her British husband, Michael Aris, and has been the target of unrelenting intimidation by Burma's military junta. After her most recent arrest last May, amid much violence, Ms Suu Kyi, aged 58, is said to have been held initially at Insein prison near Rangoon in what the UN calls "absolutely deplorable" conditions. She has since been allowed but two visits by independent observers - a UN envoy and then a Red Cross representative in July. Foreign office efforts to contact her have been rebuffed. Nobody outside the junta now knows exactly where she is.

Britain believes Ms Suu Kyi is being held under section 10a of the notorious 1975 "state protection law" that allows detention of an individual without trial, or contact with family or lawyers, for up to five years. There is no doubt about Ms Suu Kyi's courage. But the strain on her must be close to insupportable. The US government reported at the weekend that she has begun a hunger strike. Its expression of "deep concern for her safety and wellbeing" is well-founded.

Many hundreds, perhaps thousands of pro-democracy activists also languish in Burma's gulag. They must not be forgotten, either, no more than must the ordinary Burmese who lives are blighted by avoidable poverty and repression. But it is Ms Suu Kyi who has become a unique symbol of her benighted country's struggle for justice. The junta's denial of the hunger strike report, like its disingenuous plan for a "road map to democracy", should be dismissed with contempt. The new prime minister who peddles this deception, Khin Nyunt, is just another jumped-up general who has never fought a battle in his life but is a veritable Napoleon when it comes to oppressing defenceless civilians. Tougher US sanctions came into effect last week; UK campaigners' efforts to cut western business, investment and tourism links are gaining ground. But how long before Burma's neighbours show similar determination to end this regional disgrace and, perhaps, save Ms Suu Kyi?