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Burma Releases Aung San Suu Kyi
BBC NEWS
November 13, 2010: The Burmese military authorities have released the pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, from house arrest. Appearing outside her home in Rangoon, Ms Suu Kyi told thousands of jubilant supporters they had to "work in unison" to achieve their goals. The Nobel Peace Prize winner has been detained for 15 of the past 21 years. It is not yet clear if any conditions have been placed on her release.
The decision to free the 65-year-old comes six days after the political party supported by the military government won the country's first election in 20 years. The ballot was widely condemned as a sham.
'Long overdue'
US President Barack Obama welcomed her release as "long overdue". UK Prime Minister David Cameron also said the release was "long overdue", describing her detention had been a "travesty". For more than 24 hours crowds of people had been waiting anxiously near Ms Suu Kyi's home and the headquarters of her now-disbanded National League for Democracy (NLD) party for news of her fate. Many wore T-shirts sporting the slogan "We stand with Aung San Suu Kyi".
On Saturday afternoon, a standoff developed between armed riot police and several hundred people gathered on the other side of the security barricade blocking the road leading to her lakeside home. Some of them later sat down in the road in an act of defiance.
As tensions rose, reports came in at about 1700 (1030 GMT) that official cars had been seen entering Ms Suu Kyi's compound, and then that unnamed officials had formally read the release order to her.
The UN's human rights commissioner, Navanethem Pillay, said it was a "positive signal", but urged Burma's generals to "release the other 2,200 political prisoners as a clear sign that the new government intends to respect human rights and forge a new future for the country".
A BBC correspondent in Rangoon says it is unlikely that the ruling generals would have freed Ms Suu Kyi unless they felt confident that she no longer represented a threat to them or their plans for the country.
Sunday's elections were a key step in a carefully planned transition from overt military rule to a nominally civilian government, but the process has been widely condemned as widely fraudulent and un-democratic, she adds.
State media have reported that the biggest military-backed party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), has secured a majority in both houses of parliament. Those elected included the leader of the USDP, Prime Minister Thein Sein, who retired from the military as a general in April to stand.
A quarter of seats in the two new chambers of parliament will be reserved for the military. Any constitutional change will require a majority of more than 75% - meaning that the military will retain a casting vote.
The NLD - which won the last election in 1990 but was never allowed to take power - refused to contest the election, which means that legally it is no longer a political entity, and by extension Burma's most famous democracy campaigner has no official political status and an unclear role.
Our correspondent says the next few days might provide some answers on how Ms Suu Kyi plans to further the cause of freedom of justice in Burma, for which she has sacrificed so much to achieve, but in the meantime thousands of her supporters are just enjoying the moment.
