Reports: Myanmar generals sign order to release Aung San Suu Kyi

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Reports: Myanmar generals sign order to release Aung San Suu Kyi

2010-11-12 20:09:43 GMT+7 (ICT)

BANGKOK (BNO NEWS) -- Military authorities in Myanmar (Burma) have signed an order authorizing the release of pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, according to news reports on Friday.

The BBC reported, citing a number of sources inside Myanmar, that documents authorizing the release of Suu Kyi have been signed. She could be released as early as Saturday, according to her lawyer.

"There is no law to hold her for another day. Her detention period expires on Saturday and she will be released," said Nyan Win, who represents Suu Kyi. "They should release her for the country."

However, it was not immediately clear if it would be an unconditional release or a limited release, which would bar her from political activities. Win earlier said that Suu Kyi would not accept a limited release.

The reports of her possible release come only days after the nation held its first elections in about 20 years. But while the government claimed the polls marked a transition to a democratic civilian rule, the international community condemned them as a sham.

There were over 3,000 candidates from 37 parties in Sunday's election, which allowed some 29 million people to vote at 40,000 polling stations. But with thousands of possible candidates held under house arrest or prison, the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party were sure to win.

"One of the starkest flaws of this exercise was the regime's continued detention of more than 2,100 political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, thereby denying them any opportunity to participate in the process," U.S. President Barack Obama said on Sunday, calling on authorities to release Suu Kyi along with all other political prisoners.

Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights, is sometimes compared with former South African leader Nelson Mandela as an international symbol of heroic and peaceful resistance in the face of oppression.

In 1988, Suu Kyi returned to Myanmar after a period overseas but was quickly put under house arrest in Rangoon as the junta declared a martial law. Two years later, Myanmar held its first general election since 1960. The polls were by far won by Suu Kyi of the National League for Democracy (NLD), but the results were ignored by the military junta and has since ruled the country.

Years later, in 1995, Suu Kyi was released from her house arrest in Rangoon although her movements remained restricted. She eventually was placed under house arrest again from September 2000 to May 2002 after she traveled to the city of Mandalay, in defiance of her travel restrictions.

Her release in May 2002 was unconditionally, but just a year later she was arrested after a clash between NLD supporters and a government-backed mob. After several months in prison, in September 2003, Suu Kyi was put under house arrest again.

Ever since she has remained under house arrest but briefly appeared in public in September 2007 to greet protesting Buddhist monks. And in May 2009, she was charged with breaking detention rules after an American swam to her compound and broke into her compound even though he had not been invited by Suu Kyi.

After a trial that was widely condemned by the international community, Suu Kyi was convicted and sentenced in August 2009 to a further 18 months of house arrest.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2010-11-12

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