Myanmar/Burma - Potential Imminent Release for Aung San Suu Kyi

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MYANMAR/BURMA - POTENTIAL IMMINENT RELEASE FOR AUNG SAN SUU KYI

Myanmar/Burma Military said to have signed order freeing Aung San Suu Kyi, but democracy activist demands unconditional release.

Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi says she felt compelled to

act on behalf of the people of Burma

Supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi outside the National League for Democracy HQ in Rangoon

Supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi gather outside the National League for Democracy headquarters in Rangoon, Burma, waiting for her release. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

November 12, 2010 - After seven years under house arrest and 15 of the last 21 incarcerated in some form by Burma's military regime, Aung San Suu Kyi today chose one last night of imprisonment so that she might walk truly free.

As speculation over her imminent release reached fever pitch in her home city of Rangoon, word spread that military officials had visited her house and that the order had been signed authorising her immediate release.

Mid-afternoon Burma time, the Guardian understands, the 65-year-old was told she was free to leave the two-storey lakeside villa which the junta had made her prison for most of this decade.

Attached to her release, the military sought to impose strict conditions, understood to be restrictions on where she could travel within Burma, and with whom she could meet.

It was rumoured that Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's best-known democracy advocate and a Nobel peace laureate, demanded an unconditional release and insisted on negotiating her unfettered freedom with military officials before she would set foot outside her door.

From early morning in Rangoon, expectation had grown that Aung San Suu Kyi's release was imminent and could come, with truly Burmese unpredictability, a single day before the 13 November, the day her sentence was due to end.

Across the city, truckloads of police, dressed in riot gear and carrying assault rifles, were stationed at key intersections, at government buildings and at Rangoon's major public space, Shwedagon Pagoda.

As a rumour swept Rangoon that she would walk free at 4pm local time, hundreds of supporters, some bedecked in shirts bearing her image and carrying portraits, flocked to the military roadblock on University Avenue which cuts off her house from the rest of the city.

Watched from behind the barbed wire by a wary police and military presence, the crowd waited quietly, joined by diplomats and a few dozen western journalists, most in the country illegally and whose pretence as tourists was now uncovered.

Plainclothed special branch police officers moved openly through the crowd filming and photographing the people who had turned out to support, and those from the media who had turned out to cover, "The Lady's" release.

At the same time, thousands more supporters gathered at the nearby headquarters of Aung San Suu Kyi's now-banned political party, the National League for Democracy.

It is there she was expected to speak publicly for the first time when she finally left her home.

Neither meeting was boisterous or rowdy. There were no signs, no chanting of slogans.

Security forces were not aggressive towards those gathered. But there was a palpable sense of expectation, which faltered, and faded as hours ticked by without word or movement from beyond the barricades.

At dusk, word filtered through to the crowd that negotiations, whatever shape they were taking, had reached an impasse.U Win Tin, co-founder of the NLD, appeared at the roadblock in a taxi to tell Aung San Suu Kyi's supporters they would not see her tonight.

He said Aung San Suu Kyi had been told, "she could go this day", but that it was likely it would be one more night before she emerged in public.

Earlier, he had predicted she would defy any conditions placed on her by the military, which had imposed restrictions on her travel and freedom to associate during her previous brief spells of liberty. "She's the daughter of our national hero [General Aung San, commander of the Burma Independence Army]. She won't quit politics, no matter what the military junta offers."

Speculation surrounding Aung San Suu Kyi, her impending release and just how much freedom she will be allowed, has overshadowed the emerging results of Burma's first general election in 20 years, held last Sunday.

While no official declaration has been made, the military junta appears to have claimed an overwhelming victory for its own party, a result that has surprised no one.

The Union Solidarity and Development Party – bankrolled by military largesse and stacked with generals who have swapped fatigues for suits – has said it has won more than 80% of seats decided so far in a blatantly rigged election.

International observers have described the poll as a sham – US President Barack Obama accused the junta of "stealing" the election – and polling day was marred by widespread reports of voter coercion, intimidation and bribery.

Of 472 seats decided since last Sunday's poll, the junta's party has won 396, dwarfing all 36 other parties combined.

All told, 1,152 seats are to be decided across regional parliaments and a national upper and lower house. And while the junta has claimed these elections as a significant milestone on its roadmap to civilian democracy, Burma's new parliament will be stacked with many of the most senior names in the current regime.

Prime Minister Thein Sein has been elected, along with the junta's number three, Shwe Mann, considered by most to be the "man most likely" to take over from the reclusive Senior General Than Shwe, who did not contest the election.

Such a result was predicted weeks ago. The junta-backed party had almost 10 times as many candidates as the largest opposition party, and millions of state dollars backing its campaign.

As well, the country's new constitution, brought into force by the poll, entrenches military rule by guaranteeing 25% of parliamentary seats, as well as key ministries, for the army.