The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been under house arrest in her home country for 15 out of the past 21 years. The daughter of modern Burma's founder, Suu Kyi, 65, has become a symbol of the country's struggle against military dictatorship.
In 1990 elections, her National League for Democracy party won a majority in both the parliament and in the popular vote, but Suu Kyi was already behind bars and remained there, unable to take up the post of prime minister. Myanmar didn't hold elections again for another 20 years.
Khin Maung Win, AP
Members of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy gather Friday at the party's headquarters in Yangon, Myanmar, for the detained opposition leader's expected release.
Suu Kyi's house arrest officially expires Saturday, but rumors have swept the capital city of Yangon that she might be released as early as today. Hundreds of supporters are gathering outside her party's headquarters and at her home, outside a barbed-wire barricade, with their arms heavy with celebratory flower garlands.
At dusk, U Win Tin, co-founder of Suu Kyi's banned NLD party, appeared at a military roadblock outside the gates of her house to address supporters, The Guardian reported. He said Suu Kyi had been told she "could go this day" but that because of an impasse in negotiations, she'll likely spend one more night under house arrest.
Word of Suu Kyi's possible release comes days after Myanmar held its first elections since the disputed 1990 vote. Suu Kyi and her party were barred from participating in Sunday's elections, and state media announced that a pro-junta party won a majority in both houses of parliament.
Derided as a sham by pro-democracy advocates, the vote was nevertheless a small step toward democracy in Myanmar and was heralded as such by the military.
The vice chairman of Suu Kyi's party, Tin Oo, told The Associated Press that Myanmar's military generals have endorsed her release. "My sources tell me that the release order has been signed," Oo said. "I hope she will be released."
Suu Kyi was originally supposed to be released last year, but a bizarre case involving an American who swam across a lake to her home, claiming he was on a mission to save her, prompted military authorities to extend her detention by another 18 months, the BBC reported.
"The authorities will release her. It is certain," an unnamed government official told Agence France-Presse.
Suu Kyi's release is something international aid groups and democracy advocates have been demanding for years. President Barack Obama called for her freedom during his current trip to Asia, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made a similar call before Sunday's elections.
Amnesty International's Myanmar specialist, Benjamin Zawacki, told CNN that it makes "perfect sense" for the regime to free her now that elections are over and she's "no longer an electoral threat to them." But he said he believes Myanmar's military rulers will not release her unconditionally.
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One demand that the country's military rulers might make is for Suu Kyi to stay out of politics altogether -- something her supporters say is out of the question.
"She has made it categorically clear that she will not accept conditions; that she will not walk out of the house with conditions," Maung Zarni, a research fellow on Myanmar at the London School of Economics, told CNN.
If and when she is freed, one of the first things Suu Kyi is expected to do is challenge the legitimacy of last weekend's elections, as well as recent changes to the constitution that strengthened the military's grip on power.
Suu Kyi is one of Myanmar's estimated 2,000 political prisoners. Formerly known as Burma, the country has been under military rule since 1962.
Myo Thein
Director
Burma Democratic Concern (BDC)
myothein19@gmail.com
myothein@bdcburma.org
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