Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi released

[ajtr]

Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi released​

AFP
(3 hours ago) Today

In this photograph dated on May 14, 1999 Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi talks to the press at her Nation League for Democracy (NLD) party headquarters in Yangon. — Photo by AFP
YANGON: Myanmar’s democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest Saturday, an official said, as crowds of excited supporters waited outside her home for a glimpse of their idol.

The crowd cheered and began to surge forward as police began removing barricades around her crumbling mansion where she has been locked up by the military junta for most of the past two decades.

The authorities went inside to read the order to release her from house arrest, a government official said.

“She is released now,” said the official, who did not want to be named.

More than 1,000 people were gathered outside in hope of seeing the 65-year-old dissident, known to her supporters simply as “The Lady”.

Although she has been sidelined and silenced by the junta — occasionally released briefly only to be put back in confinement — for many in the impoverished nation she still embodies hope of a better future.

“I think of her as my mother and also my sister and grandmother because she’s the daughter of our independence leader General Aung San,” said 45-year-old Naing Naing Win.

“She has her father’s blood.”

Despite the risks of opposing the military regime in a country with more than 2,200 political prisoners, many supporters wore T-shirts bearing her image and the words: “We stand with Aung San Suu Kyi.”

Undercover police were photographing and filming the crowds.

Myanmar’s most famous dissident has been under house arrest since 2003 — just one of several stretches of detention at the hands of the ruling generals.

Her sentence was extended last year over a bizarre incident in which an American swam uninvited to her lakeside home, sparking international condemnation and keeping her off the scene for the first election in 20 years.

The democracy icon swept her party to victory in elections two decades ago, but it was never allowed to take power.

When last released in 2002 she drew huge crowds wherever she went — a reminder that years of detention had not dimmed her immense popularity.

Some fear that junta chief Than Shwe will continue to put restrictions on the freedom of his number one enemy.

But her lawyer Nyan Win has suggested she would refuse to accept any conditions on her release, as in the past when she tried in vain to leave Yangon in defiance of the regime’s orders.

Her struggle for her country has come at a high personal cost: her husband, British academic Michael Aris, died in 1999, and in the final stages of his battle with cancer the junta refused him a visa to see his wife.

She has not seen her two sons for about a decade and has never met her grandchildren.

Her youngest son Kim Aris, 33, arrived in Bangkok ahead of her release but it was unclear whether he would be allowed to visit his mother.

Suu Kyi’s freedom is seen by observers as an effort by the regime to tame international criticism of Sunday’s election, the first since the 1990 vote.

Western nations and pro-democracy activists have blasted the poll as anything but free and fair following widespread reports of intimidation and fraud.

Partial election results show that the military and its political proxies have secured a majority in parliament.

The NLD’s decision not to participate in the election deeply split Myanmar’s opposition and Suu Kyi’s party has been disbanded, leaving her future role uncertain.

Little is known about her plans although her lawyer says she has expressed a desire to join Twitter to reach out to the Internet generation.

Few expect her to give up her long struggle for freedom from repression and attention is now on whether she can reunite the splintered opposition and bring about the democratic change that has eluded Myanmar for so long.

 

[ajtr]

The Sky News correspondent in the crowd outside the Aung San Suu Kyi's front gate describes the moment the pro-democracy leader emerges to greet her supporters for the first time.

We're not naming our correspondents in Burma for their own protection, as they're in the country illegally.

YouTube - Aung San Suu Kyi Released


Reports are coming in that Myanmar's pro-democracy leader has been released from house arrest. She's been in detention for 15 of the last 21 years - the arrest drew widespread international condemnation. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate had said she would not accept the release if conditions are imposed which would exclude her from politics. Aung San Suu Kyi has become a symbol of the struggle to rid the country of decades of military rule.

YouTube - Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi walks free after 15 years of house arrest

 

[luckyyy]

graduate from delhi university , she knows what democracy meant for..

 

[ajtr]

Suu Kyi urges supporters to seek democracy​

Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi urged thousands of supporters on Sunday to seek democracy in military-ruled Myanmar and stand up for their rights. "Democracy is when the people keep a government in check. I will accept the people keeping me in check," she said in her first major speech since being freed from seven years of house arrest a day earlier.
"You have to stand up for what is right," she said.

Suu Kyi, who had been detained 15 of the past 21 years, was speaking at the headquarters of her National League for Democracy party a week after a parliamentary election that was condemned by rights groups and the West as rigged to prolong military rule.

 

[ajtr]

Suu Kyi freed, has no plans to give up fight for democracy​

Myanmar’s democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi walked free on Saturday after seven years as a prisoner in her own home, calling on a sea of jubilant supporters to unite in the face of repression. Waving and smiling, the Nobel Peace Prize winner appeared outside the crumbling lakeside mansion where she had been locked up by the military rulers, to huge cheers and clapping from the waiting crowds.
“We must work together in unison,” she told thousands of waiting people, suggesting she has no intention of giving up her long fight for democracy in what is one of the world’s oldest dictatorships.

Many people hugged each other with joy at the sight of the 65-year-old dissident, known in Myanmar simply as “The Lady”.

She wore a pale purple traditional jacket and appeared in good health. “I’m so glad to see her in person,” said one supporter, Htein Win. “The last time I saw her was in 2002.”

Suu Kyi asked the crowd to come to her party’s headquarters on Sunday to hear her speak after she struggled to make herself heard over the roar of cheers, then went back inside her home as the crowds lingered outside.

Myanmar’s most famous dissident has been under house arrest since 2003 — just one of several stretches of detention at the hands of the ruling generals since 1989.

A senior government official said Suu Kyi’s release is “completely free” with no conditions.

Suu Kyi is still seen by many as the biggest threat to the junta after almost five decades of military dictatorship. She has been locked up for 15 of the past 21 years.

Suu Kyi's detention was extended last year over a bizarre incident in which an American swam uninvited to her lakeside home, keeping her off the scene for the first election in 20 years.

"If she is released very late, I cannot say what we can prepare for the people," said Suu Kyi's lawyer Nyan Win, who is also the NLD's long-time spokesman.

The daughter of Myanmar's independence hero General Aung San swept her party to victory in elections two decades ago, but it was never allowed to take power.

When the softly-spoken but indomitable opposition leader was last released in 2002 she drew huge crowds wherever she went -- a reminder that years of detention had not dimmed her immense popularity.

Suu Kyi's freedom is seen by observers as an effort by the regime to tame international condemnation of Sunday's election, the first since the 1990 vote.

Western nations and pro-democracy activists have criticised the poll as anything but free and fair following widespread reports of intimidation and fraud.

The NLD's decision not to participate in the election deeply split Myanmar's opposition and Suu Kyi's party has been disbanded, leaving her future role uncertain.

Partial election results show that the army-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) has already won a majority of the parliamentary seats available.

 

[ajtr]

World leaders applaud release of Aung San Suu Kyi​

World leaders applauded the release of Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Saturday, calling her a human rights hero and urging the country's ruling junta to free more political prisoners. "She is a hero of mine and a source of inspiration for all who work to advance basic human rights in Burma and around the world," US President Barack Obama said, using the former name of the nation of 50 million nestled between China and India.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said her long detention was a "travesty" and her release "long overdue", while German Chancellor Angela Merkel described her as symbol of the global fight for human rights.

"Her non-violence and relentlessness have turned her into a much-admired role model," Merkel said.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said her dignity and courage were an inspiration to people around the world and cautioned Myanmar's military leadership against imposing further restrictions on her, a theme echoed by France's Nicolas Sarkozy.

"France will pay very close attention to the conditions in which Aung San Suu Kyi enjoys her newfound freedom. Any obstacle to her freedom of movement or expression would constitute a new and unacceptable denial of her rights," the French president said.

Suu Kyi, 65, has spent 15 of the past 21 years in detention because of her opposition to 48 years of military rule in Myanmar and her house arrest was extended in August last year.

Her release gives Myanmar a powerful pro-democracy voice just days after a widely criticised election was won by a party backed by the military and is likely to rekindle debate over Western sanctions against the resource-rich country.

Flowers in her hair
"It is now crucial that Aung San Suu Kyi has unrestricted freedom of movement and speech and can participate fully in her country's political process," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said.

Her hair pinned with flowers, the pro-democracy leader emerged from her crumbling lakeside mansion in Yangon on Saturday to rapturous cheers from supporters who had chanted for her release alongside riot police armed with guns and teargas.

"People must work in unison. Only then can we achieve our goal," the Nobel Peace Prize-winner said, before returning inside her home for the first meeting with her National League for Democracy party in seven years.

Despite her steely determination in confronting Myanmar's generals, the country has moved no closer to democracy after nearly half a century of brutal military rule and more than 2,000 political prisoners remain in custody.

The United States first imposed sanctions in 1988 after the junta cracked down on student-led protests and has gradually tightened them over the years, with Obama extending them in May.

The European Union adopted a common sanctions stance in 1996, and countries including Australia, Canada and Japan also have restrictions in place.

"In the prisons of Myanmar there are still at least 2,100 political prisoners," the Swiss foreign ministry said in a statement. "Switzerland appeals once again to the government of Myanmar to release these people immediately as well."

 

[INDIAN007]

Good News -> GoI Supports her and her Ambitions

 

[ajtr]

India hopes release brings reconciliation​

India welcomed Aung San Suu Kyi’s release with a nuanced statement. External affairs minister S M Krisha said, “I understand the Government of Myanmar has just released Madam Aung San Suu Kyi. The Government of India welcomes her release. We hope that this will be the beginning of the process of


reconciliation in Myanmar.”
US President Barack Obama had urged India to do more against the violation of human rights in Myanmar. He was speaking in the context of US support of a UN Security Council seat for India.

Behind closed doors, New Delhi has long urged the Myanmar government to release Suu Kyi, even while declining to upbraid the junta publicly on the issue

The cautious way New Delhi has gone around welcoming the release underlines the geopolitics-dictated pragmatism that makes the military rulers in Myanmar important for India.

The 1,640 km-long boundary that abuts India’s north east states aside, Myanmar is under keen Chinese watch and is the first country in the east that is strategically located.

New Delhi and Myanmar have a very close relationship that cuts across many areas including security cooperation, which is important considering insurgents from north east use Myanmar as a hide-out.

During the last visit of Myanmar junta chief Senior General Than Shwe in July, Delhi pledged to provide $60 million in grant to build a road connecting Myanmar with Mizoram and $10 million to help boost their agriculture—a sector where Chinese imprints are considerable.

 

[ajtr]

A 21-year struggle finally ends​

With her resolve and peaceful resistance in the face of repression, Aung San Suu Kyi remains a beacon of hope for many in Myanmar after almost five decades of military rule. So fearful are the generals of the Nobel Peace Prize winner's popularity that they have kept the 65-year-old locked up for 15


of the past 21 years.
While some see her as a figure from the past, no longer so relevant following the emergence of a new generation of pro-democracy activists, for her supporters she represents the best chance of a better future.

Little is known about what she plans to do if freed, apart from a desire to join Twitter to reach out to supporters worldwide, but few expect her to abandon her struggle.

"The commitment is still there," said Andrew Heyn, Britain's ambassador to Myanmar who met with her last year when she was allowed talks with Western diplomats. "She's well informed, she's committed, and the message I got when I spoke to her... this is a woman who wants to stay involved," he said.

Suu Kyi swept the National League for Democracy to a landslide election win in 1990, but the regime never accepted the result.

Her party boycotted the nation's first election in 20 years, held on November 7. The move left the opposition divided and attention is now on whether Suu Kyi can unite it again.

Suu Kyi entered Myanmar's political arena at a relatively late stage, after spending much of her life abroad in India and then Britain. She returned to Yangon in 1988 to nurse her sick mother, as protests erupted against the military.

Suu Kyi was quick to take on a leading role in the pro-democracy movement. Alarmed by the support she commanded, the generals ordered her first stint of house arrest in 1989.

Her many years in detention have seen her live a spartan existence of early meditation, spy novels and rare chocolate treats.

Her struggle has also come at a high personal cost: her husband, British academic Michael Aris, died in 1999, and in the final stages of his battle with cancer the junta refused him a visa to see his wife. Suu Kyi refused to leave Myanmar to see him, certain she would never have been allowed to return. She has not seen her two sons for about a decade and has never met her grandchildren.

 

[ajtr]

Suu Kyi: 'We must work together in unison'​

Military-ruled Myanmar freed Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi on Saturday after her latest period of house arrest expired, giving the country a powerful pro-democracy voice just days after a widely criticised election. "There is a time to be quiet and a time to talk. People must work in unison. Only then can we achieve our goal," Suu Kyi told thousands of cheering supporters at the gates of her lakeside compound.
She then retreated back inside her home for the first meeting with her National League for Democracy party in seven years as world leaders applauded her release, expressed relief and urged the military junta in the former Burma to free more of its estimated 2,100 political prisoners.

"The United States welcomes her long overdue release," U.S. President Barack Obama said in a statement. "It is time for the Burmese regime to release all political prisoners, not just one."

British Prime Minister David Cameron also said her freedom was long overdue. "Freedom is Aung San Suu Kyi's right. The Burmese regime must now uphold it," he said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Myanmar's rulers to free Myanmar's remaining political prisoners.

"Aung San Sui Kyi is a symbol for the global fight for the realisation of human rights. Her non-violence and relentnessness have turned her into an admired role model," the German government said in a statement.

Suu Kyi, who has spent 15 of the past 21 years in detention, had her house arrest extended last August, when a court found she had broken a law protecting the state against "subversive elements" by allowing an American intruder to stay at her home for two nights.

Supporters had gathered near her lakeside house throughout the day, many chanting "Release Aung San Suu Kyi" and "Long live Aung San Suu Kyi". Some wore T-shirts emblazoned with messages pledging to stand with her.

As the crowd swelled, riot police armed with guns and tear gas ordered Suu Kyi's increasingly vocal and anxious supporters to move back from the barricades.

Suu Kyi has been in detention for most of the past 21 years because of her opposition to 48 years of military rule in Myanmar.

Mesmerising influence

A Nov. 7 election, the first in 20 years, was won by an army-backed party. Freeing Suu Kyi, daughter of the slain hero of Myanmar's campaign for independence from Britain, may give the ruling generals some degree of international legitimacy.

The move may be the first step towards a review of Western sanctions on the resource-rich country, the largest in mainland Southeast Asia and labelled by rights groups as one of the world's most corrupt and oppressive.

"The regime needs to create some breathing space urgently," said a retired Burmese academic, who asked not to be identified.

Suu Kyi is still believed to have the same mesmerising influence over the public that helped her National League for Democracy win the last election in 1990 in a landslide, a result the military ignored.

She could draw big crowds to the gates of her home in Yangon and with a few words could rob the election of any shred of legitimacy it might have, possibly seeking to have the results annulled on grounds of fraud.

Many experts say the sanctions also benefit the junta, allowing generals and their cronies to dominate industry in the country of 50 million, rich in natural gas, timber and minerals with a strategic port in the Bay of Bengal.

Trade with the West has been replaced by strengthening ties with China, Thailand and Singapore, whose objections to the regime's human rights record are relatively muted.

"There are a lot of people with a lot at stake in maintaining the status quo," said Sean Turnell, an expert on Myanmar's economy at Sydney's Macquarie University.

 

[Alphatech]

It's a step in the right direction, but Aung San Suu Kyi still has a long way to go before she can be truly considered to be free. Right now she is a situation where she can be arrested again for the simplest charge and has no way of taking on the Military rulers without persecution. Still I hope she will one day be democratically elected the ruler of Myanmar and leads the battered country to prosperity.

 

[BATMAN]

SAYED ALI GILANI

This guy deserve much more respect than ansu ki.

He has been suffered the worst brunt of Indian army as compare to ansu ki was only house arrested.

Old man had been even refused medical treatment.

How hypocrite this world is.....

 

[ajtr]

Myanmar’s Mandela


The world celebrated the release of Nobel
Laureate and Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, yesterday. Ms Suu Kyi has spent 15 of the last 21 years in detention. She has played a central role in the democratic struggle waged by the people of Myanmar. Not only is she a woman of courage and principles but a symbol of resistance against oppression and an inspiration to the world. “It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it,” contended Ms Suu Kyi in one of her most famous speeches. She could not have spoken truer words. Myanmar’s military junta has remained in power for decades and it is the junta’s increasing fear of losing control that has led it to throttle and manipulate the democratic process.

Myanmar is a multi-ethnic society but throughout its history since independence, the junta has oppressed the ethnic minorities. This has led to some of the longest running ethnic insurgencies in the world. As is inherent in military rule, minority ethnic group rights have been curbed through force. The military has not been able to suppress the insurgencies and the ethnic insurgents continue to wage their protracted struggle for just rights. The military junta has gotten away with much of its human rights abuses because of a division in the international community. Support from major power players like China, Russia, India, and even platforms like the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has weakened the case for isolating Myanmar internationally. But ‘engaging’ Myanmar has not given any fruitful results either. The world needs to take a unified stance against the military junta to make it realise the error of its ways. As Aung San Suu Kyi told the cheering crowd after her release: “There is a time to be quiet and a time to talk. People must work in unison. Only then can we achieve our goal.” The world must present a unified stance against the junta’s oppression.

The junta might be seeking greater legitimacy globally by releasing Suu Kyi, who did not surrender despite years of detention, but the jury is still out whether she would be allowed to move around freely even now. The future of democracy in Myanmar revolves around this frail woman who has the courage of a lion. We salute her courage and hope for a return to democracy in Myanmar. *

 

[Alphatech]

SAYED ALI GILANI

This guy deserve much more respect than ansu ki.

He has been suffered the worst brunt of Indian army as compare to ansu ki was only house arrested.

Old man had been even refused medical treatment.

How hypocrite this world is.....

I know it is the tendency of some to bring Kashmir into every thread here, but comparing Gilani to Aung is simply an insult to everything the woman has suffered for.

Since you seem to be pathetically ignorant of what is happening to your hero, I will update you a bit. He was allowed to travel to the US by the Indian Government for surgery to treat his kidney cancer. But your own pals, the US Government, refused his Visa application saying that he "failed to renounce violence". Fortunately, since he is in a country with some of the best medical institutes, he was successfully operated on at the TATA hospital and is now recovering. I would even venture to guess that if he had been in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and not allowed to travel abroad, you might have even got yourselves a martyr.

Get the facts right before you babble and stop bringing such people into threads meant to honor the efforts of universally recognized heroes like Aung San Suu Kyi.

 

[BATMAN]

He was refused to medical treatment in India until a private Pakistani hospital offered him treatment.
Gillani to soon visit Pakistan for treatment at Shaukat Khanam hospital: Imran Khan
As I said Ali Gilani suffered much harder brunt of Indian state as compare to his suffering ansu ki was living in palace.