The story appears on

Page A4

November 14, 2010

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

HomeWorld

Suu Kyi released from house arrest

MYANMAR'S military government freed democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday after her latest term of detention expired. Several thousand jubilant supporters streamed to her residence.

Suu Kyi appeared at the gate of her compound as the crowd chanted, cheered and sang the national anthem.

Speaking briefly, she thanked the well-wishers, who quickly swelled to as many as 5,000, and said they would see each other again today at the headquarters of her political party.

"People must work in unison. Only then can we achieve our goal," she said.

The release from house arrest of Suu Kyi, 65, came a week after an election that was swept by the military's proxy political party.

Supporters had been waiting most of the day near her residence and the headquarters of her party. Suu Kyi has been jailed or under house arrest for more than 15 of the past 21 years.

As her release was under way, riot police stationed in the area left the scene and a barbed-wire barricade near her residence was removed, allowing the waiting supporters to surge forward.

Critics allege last weekend's elections were manipulated to give the pro-military party a sweeping victory. Results have been released piecemeal and already have given the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party a majority in both houses of Parliament.

Suu Kyi is still believed to have the same mesmerizing influence over the public that helped her National League for Democracy win the last election in 1990 in a landslide, a result the military ignored.

She could rob the election of any shred of legitimacy it might have, possibly seeking to have the results annulled on grounds of fraud.

Suu Kyi was convicted last year of violating the terms of her previous detention by briefly sheltering an American man who swam uninvited to her lakeside home, extending a period of continuous detention that began in 2003 after her motorcade was ambushed in Myanmar by a government-backed mob.

 

Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

娌叕缃戝畨澶 31010602000204鍙

Email this to your friend