Jubilation in Burma as Suu Kyi is freed

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi finally walked to freedom today amid massive cheers from elated supporters who flooded the streets outside her home in Burma.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who has been detained for 15 of the past 21 years, was greeted by jubilant crowds who had gathered in Rangoon in anticipation of her release.

Ms Suu Kyi, whose latest period of detention spanned seven and a half years, smiled broadly as she appeared at the gate of her compound.

Supporters had been waiting most of the day to see the 65-year-old, who walked out in a traditional jacket and a garland fixed in her hair.

Her release comes a week after the country’s first elections in 20 years, which handed victory to the pro-military party but were condemned as a sham by critics.

She had been due for release last year but was convicted for violating the terms of her previous detention by briefly sheltering an American man who swam uninvited across a lake to her home.

Ms Suu Kyi, who has two sons, raised the pair in England where she lived with her late husband, British scholar Michael Aris, who died of prostate cancer in 1999 at the age of 53.

Her younger son Kim, 33, who still lives in the UK and has not seen his mother in 10 years, was among those awaiting her release in Bangkok, Thailand. Her eldest son is understood to live in the US.

Ms Suu Kyi took up the democracy struggle in 1988 and was thrust into a leadership role primarily because she was the daughter of martyred independence leader General Aung San.

She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990, having been detained on national security charges and put under house arrest the previous year.

She was released in 1995 but has spent much of the time since then in detention, either in jail or under house arrest.

British Prime Minister David Cameron and former Prime Minister Gordon Brown both welcomed the end to her detention.

Mr Cameron said: “This is long overdue. Aung San Suu Kyi is an inspiration for all of us who believe in freedom of speech, democracy and human rights,” he said.

“Her detention was a travesty, designed only to silence the voice of the Burmese people. Freedom is Aung San Suu Kyi’s right. The Burmese regime must now uphold it.”

Mr Brown said: “There will be joy round the world at the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, the world’s most renowned and courageous prisoner of conscience.”

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.

He added: ``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.''

Mr Shetty 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.

Zoya Phan, international co-ordinator at Burma Campaign UK, said: “The release of Aung San Suu Kyi is about public relations, not democratic reform.

“I am thrilled to see our democracy leader free at last, but the release is not part of any political process, instead it is designed to get positive publicity for the dictatorship after the blatant rigging of elections on November 7.

“We must not forget the thousands of other political prisoners still suffering in Burma’s jails.”