Cheers as Aung San Suu Kyi is freed

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi finally walked to freedom from house arrest today amid massive cheers from jubilant supporters outside her home.

Hundreds of supporters who had gathered in anticipation of her release in Rangoon, Burma, greeted her and took photographs of the momentous occasion as her house arrest finally came to an end.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate had been detained for 15 of the past 21 years.

Amnesty International’s secretary general, Salil Shetty, said: “While Aung San Suu Kyi’s release is certainly welcome, it only marks the end of an unfair sentence that was illegally extended, and is by no means a concession on the part of the authorities.”

Today's developments were welcomed by Amnesty International.

Secretary General Salil Shetty said: “While Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s release is certainly welcome, it only marks the end of an unfair sentence that was illegally extended, and is by no means a concession on the part of the authorities.

“The fact remains that authorities should never have arrested her or the many other prisoners of conscience in Burma in the first place, locking them out of the political process.”

He said it was now important the authorities ensured her security and “put an end to the ongoing injustice of political imprisonment in the country”.

There are more than 2,200 political prisoners in Burma still held under vague laws frequently used to criminalise peaceful political dissent, according to human rights campaigners.