Myanmar’s Suu Kyi freed after 7 years’ house arrest
Nov. 15, 2010
Myanmar's pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi was on Saturday released from seven years of house arrest following the expiry of her latest detention term.
Barricades blocking the road leading to her lakeside home were removed by the security forces around 5 p.m., and soon after official cars were seen entering the compound. Suu Kyi emerged from her home shortly before 6 p.m. and greeted hundreds of cheering supporters that had gathered in front of the gate of her compound.
''I'm very happy to see you all again. Thank you all for coming here,'' Suu Kyi told the supporters, many of whom wore T-shirts reading ''We stand with Aung San Suu Kyi.''
She could not make herself heard over the crowd, and so after speaking for around 15 minutes, requested the supporters to gather at the headquarters of her National League for Democracy party at 12 p.m. Sunday.
After shaking hands with many supporters and accepting flowers from them, she then retreated back inside her home along with senior NLD members for her first meeting with them in seven years.
Her lawyer said she was released without conditions. Her immediate plans were not immediately known.
Suu Kyi, who has been under some form of detention for 15 of the past 21 years, was convicted in August 2009 of violating the terms of her previous detention and sentenced to a further 18 months of house arrest.
That conviction stemmed from an incident in May 2009 in which an uninvited American swam to her lakeside house and stayed for two days.
The trial drew stinging condemnation from the international community, and the conviction was widely viewed as designed to keep her detained through the country's first elections in two decades held on Nov. 7. The NLD boycotted the elections on grounds that the election laws are ''unfair and unjust.''
When the American tourist swam to her house in May last year, she had been living under house arrest that began in May 2003 and was extended each year thereafter.
Suu Kyi, 65, is the daughter of assassinated national hero Gen. Aung San, the architect of Burma's independence from Britain in 1948. The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner has led the fight for democracy in Myanmar through the NLD, which won the country's 1990 elections by a landslide but was never allowed to take up seats in parliament.
The Myanmar military seized power in 1988 after crushing a pro-democracy uprising.
(Distributed by Kyodo News on Nov.13, 2010)
Barricades blocking the road leading to her lakeside home were removed by the security forces around 5 p.m., and soon after official cars were seen entering the compound. Suu Kyi emerged from her home shortly before 6 p.m. and greeted hundreds of cheering supporters that had gathered in front of the gate of her compound.
''I'm very happy to see you all again. Thank you all for coming here,'' Suu Kyi told the supporters, many of whom wore T-shirts reading ''We stand with Aung San Suu Kyi.''
She could not make herself heard over the crowd, and so after speaking for around 15 minutes, requested the supporters to gather at the headquarters of her National League for Democracy party at 12 p.m. Sunday.
After shaking hands with many supporters and accepting flowers from them, she then retreated back inside her home along with senior NLD members for her first meeting with them in seven years.
Her lawyer said she was released without conditions. Her immediate plans were not immediately known.
Suu Kyi, who has been under some form of detention for 15 of the past 21 years, was convicted in August 2009 of violating the terms of her previous detention and sentenced to a further 18 months of house arrest.
That conviction stemmed from an incident in May 2009 in which an uninvited American swam to her lakeside house and stayed for two days.
The trial drew stinging condemnation from the international community, and the conviction was widely viewed as designed to keep her detained through the country's first elections in two decades held on Nov. 7. The NLD boycotted the elections on grounds that the election laws are ''unfair and unjust.''
When the American tourist swam to her house in May last year, she had been living under house arrest that began in May 2003 and was extended each year thereafter.
Suu Kyi, 65, is the daughter of assassinated national hero Gen. Aung San, the architect of Burma's independence from Britain in 1948. The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner has led the fight for democracy in Myanmar through the NLD, which won the country's 1990 elections by a landslide but was never allowed to take up seats in parliament.
The Myanmar military seized power in 1988 after crushing a pro-democracy uprising.
(Distributed by Kyodo News on Nov.13, 2010)
