Supporters await Suu Kyi’s release

RUMOUR and speculation about the imminent release of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi swept across Burma yesterday, but there was no word from the country’s secretive military rulers about whether she would be freed after almost two decades of house arrest.

Web boards and foreign news media went into overdrive amid a flurry of rumours that the charismatic leader of Burma’s fight against dictatorship was set to walk free yesterday or when her latest period of house arrest expires today.

Reports quoted government insiders, state officials and well-connected sources as saying the country’s reclusive leader, Senior General Than Shwe, had signed an order for her release. But in one of the world’s most secretive states, few outside the junta strongman’s inner circle really know what is going on. Analysts and Burma-based diplomats say even his ministers are kept in the dark. One government official said he believed Suu Kyi would be released but he could not confirm it.