Burma releases Aung San Suu Kyi
Nov 13th, 2010
13 November 2010 Last updated at 13:08
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The BBC’s John Simpson speaking from the scene of the release of Aung San Suu Kyi
The Burmese military authorities have released the pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, from house arrest.
Appearing in front of thousands of jubilant supporters outside her home in Rangoon, Ms Suu Kyi said they had to work in unison to achieve their goals.
The crowd had rushed to the compound when nearby barricades were removed by police.
The 65-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner has been detained for 15 of the past 21 years.
Her release 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’
From Friday, crowds of people had been waiting anxiously for news of Ms Suu Kyi’s fate near her home and the headquarters of her now-banned National League for Democracy (NLD) party. Many wore T-shirts sporting the slogans “We stand with Aung San Suu Kyi”.
At the scene
Hundreds of people are refusing to go away – at this extraordinary moment of history – they keep saying they are very happy.
They are standing outside the house that has been Aung San Suu Kyi’s prison for so many years and is now her home.
It took about half an hour after the release before she came up to the gate and tried to address the crowd – and it took a long time to quiet the crowd so she could speak.
She looked extremely happy, very emotional, and the whole crowd is grinning from ear to ear.
Plain clothes police were around but as soon as an opening appeared in the barricades, people just surged through.
She has been released before and because of what she has said about peace and freedom and democracy she has been jailed again. We don’t know what is gong to happen.
On Saturday afternoon, a stand-off 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.
Hundreds of people then surged forward and rushed forwards to greet her, 18 months after her latest house arrest term began.
The ecstatic crowd swelled to three or four thousand before Ms Suu Kyi finally appeared, about 30 minutes later, on a platform behind the gate of her compound, wearing a traditional lilac dress.
She took a flower from someone in the crowd and placed it into her hair – something for which she is famous for in Burma.
Ms Suu Kyi then tried to speak. However, the crowd was too loud, with many singing the national anthem and chanting her name repeatedly.
“There is a time to be quiet and a time to talk,” she told them. “People must work in unison. Only then can we achieve our goal.”
She then went back inside her home for the first meeting with NLD leaders in seven years. Officials said she would speak again on Sunday.
International leaders were quick to welcome Ms Suu Kyi’s release.
Ms Suu Kyi’s supporters gathered at her home in anticipation of her releaseThe head of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), Surin Pitsuswan, said he was “very, very relieved” and hoped that the move would “contribute to true national reconciliation” in Burma.
US President Barack Obama called Ms Suu Kyi “a hero of mine”.
“Whether Aung San Suu Kyi is living in the prison of her house, or the prison of her country, does not change the fact that she, and the political opposition she represents, has been systematically silenced, incarcerated, and deprived of any opportunity to engage in political processes,” he said in a statement.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron also said the release was “long overdue”, describing her detention had been a “travesty”.
“Aung San Suu Kyi is an inspiration for all of us who believe in freedom of speech, democracy and human rights,” he added.
Elections criticised
The decision by Burma’s ruling generals to release Ms Suu Kyi follows the elections on Sunday.
Aung San Suu Kyi
- Born 1945, daughter of Burma’s independence hero, General Aung San, assassinated in 1947
- 1960: Leaves Burma and is later educated at Oxford University
- 1988: Returns to care for sick mother and is caught up in revolt against then-dictator Ne Win
- 1989: Put under house arrest as Burma junta declares martial law
- 1990: NLD wins election; military disregards result
- 1991: Wins Nobel Peace Prize
- 1995: Released from house arrest, but movements restricted
- 2000: Near continuous period of house arrest begins
- Sept 2007: First public appearance since 2003, greeting protesting Buddhist monks
- November 2010: NLD boycotts first election in 20 years and is disbanded; Released from house arrest
Earlier this week, state media announced that partial results showed that the biggest military-backed party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), had secured a majority in both houses of parliament.
The USDP had won 190 of the 219 seats so far declared in the 330-seat lower House of Representatives, and 95 of 107 seats in the 168-seat upper House of Nationalities, the reports said.
Those elected included the leader of the USDP, Prime Minister Thein Sein, who retired from the military as a general in April to stand.
The junta has said the election marks the transition from military rule to a civilian democracy, but the opposition, many Western governments and human rights groups have said the election was neither free nor fair.
The NLD – which won the last election in 1990 but was never allowed to take power – was ordered to dissolve after refusing to take part.
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.
