Burmese activist holds a picture of opposition party leader Aung San Suu Kyi outside the Burmese embassy in Bangkok (File)

Burma's pro-democracy opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was not invited this year to pay tribute to her late father on Martyrs' Day.

Supporters of the Nobel peace laureate say she was kept under house arrest as the military government held a short memorial service early Saturday in Rangoon.

General Aung San and eight other people were shot by political rivals on July 19th, 1942, while they were holding a meeting for Burmese independence from Britain.

Unlike previous years, foreign diplomats were not invited to the ceremony at the Martyr's mausoleum close to the famous Shwe Dagon shrine, and the site was surrounded by hundreds of riot police.

On May 27 the Nobel Peace laureate's house detention was extended by one year.  Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest continuously since May 2003, and for more than 12 of the last 18 years.

She led the NLD to a landslide election victory in 1990, but the results were ignored by the ruling junta.


Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP.