The UN Secretary General is growing "increasingly alarmed" about Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been in custody since May 30th, UN envoy Razali Ismail said today.
Mr Razali, who met Suu Kyi on June 10th, said that when he left Burma, he had sought specific assurances about her release which he did not get.
"The UN, the Secretary-General and a lot of people there are...increasingly alarmed about the situation," Mr Razali told reporters in Tokyo.
"I had said then that in one week or two weeks, one might expect that she would be released," he said. "It is now past two weeks."
Britain says she is being held in the "notorious" Insein jail on the northern outskirts of Yangon, but Mr Razali declined to clarify where she was being held.
He was earlier quoted by Kyodo news agency as telling Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi that he met Suu Kyi in a "concrete house" within the grounds of a Yangon prison.
"What I can say is that where I met her was absolutely deplorable," he added. "It was not keeping with the stature and the status of Aung San Suu Kyi as a political leader or as a national leader."
He repeated earlier statements that he saw no signs that Suu Kyi had been injured when he met her and was in strong spirits.
"She's uncowed and feisty, she was outraged that this had happened to her," he said. "That's the Suu Kyi I've always known."
Suu Kyi, 58, has been in detention since a clash between her supporters and supporters of the government in the north of the country on May 30th.
Her National League for Democracy swept to election victory in 1990 but was never allowed to rule.
Mr Razali said that it was now important for the world community to express its concern for her safety, not only while she is still in custody but also after her eventual release, but made no further recommendations. Japan added its weight to growing international pressure on Burma today, saying it would halt its hefty economic aid to the country unless the military government releases Suu Kyi.
The move by one of Myanmar's biggest aid donors and a country that has been relatively willing to engage with Rangoon is likely to have even greater weight than recent strong criticism of Suu Kyi's detention by the United States and Britain.