Myanmar nationals hold portraits of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi during a protest outside the Myanmar embassy in Phnom Penh in the May 27, 2009 file photo. (Xinhua/Reuters File Photo)
Aung San Suu Kyi, a noted political figure and leader of the “dissolved” National League for Democracy (NLD), was freed by the government on Saturday evening after serving 18 months’ confinement to her residence in Yangon.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s terms of house arrest expired on Saturday.
Barricades placed in front of her lake-side residence have been removed where hundreds of people along with newsmen had been gathering day and night since Friday.
NLD headquarters in Yangon are also packed with people to greet freed Aung San Suu Kyi.
The release of Aung San Suu Kyi, 65, came six days after Myanmar held a multi-party general election on Nov. 7, which her party boycotted out of election law issue.
Aung San Suu Kyi, NLD General Secretary, was last sentenced by a district court to three years’ rigorous term on Aug. 11, 2009 for allegedly violating her terms of house arrest by accommodating a U.S. citizen, John William Yettaw, who swam across the Inya Lake in Yangon and sneaked into her lakeside house for three days from May 3 to 5 when she was under restriction.
The sentence was then commuted half and the remainder was suspended by the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) by putting her under 18 months of house restriction until expiry on Saturday.
She failed in appealing against her house arrest for several times earlier over the detention period.
Aung San Suu Kyi had been detained off and on for 15 out of the past 21 years from July 1989 to May 26, 2009 with the first being for nearly six years until July 10, 1995 on charge of “endangering security of the state”. The second time was from Sept. 22, 2000 to May 2002 for her defiance of the government’s travel restriction by forcing her way to the second largest city of Mandalay. The third time, which was from May 30, 2003, was due to the Dabayin bloody incident in northwestern Sagaing region in which clashes occurred between government supporters and NLD supporters. The fourth from May 2009 to date was due to “Yettaw Incident”.
Under an offer of Myanmar top leader Senior-General Than Shwe, SPDC Chairman, for a conditional and direct talk to her personally in 2007, Aung San Suu Kyi met with Myanmar Liaison Minister U Aung Kyi for five times with the last in January 2008 since talks were initiated in October 2007.
Than Shwe’s conditions set Aung San Suu Kyi to abandon her alleged” exerted efforts for confrontation, utter devastation, and imposing all kinds of sanctions including economic sanctions against Myanmar” which Aung San Suu Kyi denied.
Source: Xinhua
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