Reports: Myanmar to Release Nobel LaureateNov 12, 2010 – 8:47 AM
(Nov. 12) -- Reports are coming out of Myanmar that the country's military rulers have signed an order to allow Aung San Suu Kyi to go free.
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.
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."
