Manila  - Dozens of Filipino democracy activists Tuesday picketed the Myanmar embassy in the Philippines to denounce a new house-arrest sentence for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The protestors, who waved yellow ribbons and yellow chrysanthemums, said Suu Kyi's conviction for violating the terms of her house arrest was unfair and baseless.

"Obviously the junta is bent on isolating Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her party so that she could not provide effective political influence come 2010 elections in Burma [Myanmar],"said Egoy Bans, a spokesman for the Free Burma Coalition-Philippines.

Bans warned that the Myanmar junta could face an uprising similar to the 2007 protests when up to 100,000 people, led by Buddhist monks, marched in Yangon.

"Aung San Suu Kyi is Burma's hope for democracy," Bans said. "Convicting her for a crime she is not guilty of is tantamount to killing that hope."

A Myanmar court on Tuesday found Suu Kyi, 64, guilty of breaking the terms of her detention by allowing a US national to swim into her lakeside compound-cum-prison on May 3.

The court sentenced Suu Kyi to three years in prison, but junta leader Senior General Than Shwe immediately reduced the sentence to 18 months of house arrest.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has spent a total of 14 of the past 20 years under house arrest. (dpa)