Aung San Suu Kyi 'could be free by October'

Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi may be freed from detention before October, Indonesia’s foreign minister said today.

“We have an assurance that the Suu Kyi case will be finished before the Asean summit,” Hasan Wirayuda said in Bandung, West Java.

He did not elaborate, but Indonesia has been trying to coax Burma’s military junta into releasing the Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

The Association of South-east Asian Nations – Asean – will hold its annual summit in Bali at the start of October.

Burma’s Foreign Minister Win Aung has warned that releasing Suu Kyi, the widow of an Oxford don, could trigger unrest in the country.

She is being held in a government guest house in the capital Rangoon and is in good health, he said.

Suu Kyi was detained by the junta following a deadly clash on May 30 between her supporters and a mob supporting the generals. The military said she was detained for her own protection.

Her National League for Democracy party won general elections in 1990, but was barred by the military from taking power.