Suu Kyi won’t accept conditional release, says lawyer

BURMA’S democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will not accept conditions on her freedom if the military government releases her this week when her latest period of detention is due to end, her lawyer said.

The charismatic and influential figurehead of Burma’s fight for democracy could still be a potent threat to the ruling military but it stands to gain diplomatically by freeing her.

Suu Kyi voiced opposition to the first election in 20 years, held last Sunday and easily won, as expected, by a party set up by the military. She has called on her loyalists to expose electoral fraud, her lawyer Nyan Win said.

US President Barack Obama dismissed the election as stolen while China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs lauded it as “peaceful and successful”, illustrating strengthening ties between energy-hungry China and its resource-rich neighbour.

Burma’s other neighbours and partners in the Association of South East Asian (ASEAN) had urged it to make the election “fair and inclusive” and to release Suu Kyi and more than 2,000 other political prisoners before the vote.

While that did not happen, there is speculation she might be freed from house arrest on Saturday, when a sentence imposed last year for the violation of a security law is due to end.

“Aung San Suu Kyi must be released on or before November 13 because it is the day when the house arrest on her expires,” said lawyer Nyan Win, who is also a spokesman for Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD).

“The release must also be unconditional because she will not accept a limited release,” he said.

When released from a six-year stint of house arrest in 1995, Suu Kyi was not allowed to leave the city of Rangoon. That led to confrontations as she tried to travel to meet supporters.

Authorities have not said if Suu Kyi, daughter of the hero of Burma’s campaign for independence from Britain, will be freed or not. She has been detained for 15 of the past 21 years.

Releasing Suu Kyi carries risks for the military as it seeks legitimacy for the election and for a new government that will be set up.

The military is guaranteed a quarter of all seats in the newly-elected assemblies and the winning party is packed with former military men.

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

She could draw big crowds to the gates of her crumbling lakeside home and with a few words could rob the election of any shred of legitimacy it might have.