The military authorities in Burma have released pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi earlier today. The 65-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner (honoured in 1991) has been detained under house arrest for 15 years of the past 21 years.
Aung San Suu Kyi helped set up the National League for Democracy (NLD) party which won the 1990 general election despite her arrest a year earlier. But the military, which rules the Southeast Asian nation since 1962, refused to relinquish power.
Military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) won the country’s first election in 20 years last Sunday. The ballot was widely condemned though.
Read more about Aung San Suu Kyi on BBC (news) and Wikipedia (bio).
the burmese military finally doing the right thing. i hope they won’t find another stupid reason to detain her again.
There’s a good chance that the military will hold her under house arrest again if she continues to fight for democracy and freedom like she used to, which I think she will… so the possibility of seeing her detained again is quite high I’m afraid.
I agree, she got out on what they called “good behavior”. Won’t be long before she’ll be mis-behaving again in their opinion. Then they’ll arrest her again. Probelm for them will however, if they do it again the whole world will raise a bigger fuss than last time. So, the Junta may have made a mistake letting her go this time for their part. because if they arrestst her again, it just makes bigger news and they come under even more world scrutiny.
Unless they’ve changed their policies, the Burmese military government won’t bother much about what the rest of the world thinks.
Maybe, maybe not. I never predict what someone will do in the future depending on developing circunstances and added pressure that wasn’t before. Either way, I just said there will be more world scrutiny. I never said what Junta’s reaction would be later on. That remains to be seen. One thing’s for sure they won’t give up easily. News also said, Aung San Suu Kyi may be urged to push for lighter santions against the government. That also remains to be seen as to what she will do. She indicated that she will consider that possiblity later. So, she will hold some cards too. Since that subject was brought up so soon after her release, that may possibly play a part in Junta’s decision to release her. Otherwise, there was really no reason. I suspect she’s been on “good behavior” long before now, But They decided to release her now. “good behavior” just sounds like an excuse. Something a military government wouldn’t care much about anyway regarding a political prisoner, which is what she really is. Remember, she and her words are a threat to their power, that’s why she was arrested. Just like the book Author in China was arrested. His words are a threat to their power. Why? Because it influences the thinking of the masses. And controlling the masses of people’s thinking through fear of punishment is how these governments retain power..
Also, my point was, although the military government may not change their policies, the fact is they don’t need any more scrutiny than they would like to be dealing with already. That’s why I said releasing her and arresting her is a mistake. It’s kind of stupid. It just draws more attention and if they were smart they would not want to draw anymore negative attention from the rest of the world than they already have because it just isn’t beneficial to them in the long run. Unless, as i said, they may be hoping they can cut a deal with her to influence some of the policies of other countries towards them. The country is actually in pretty bad shape because of the military government’s bad management of economy etc. It’s one of the most oppressive and hungry places. And that should be no surprise anyway. The military government are nothing but a bunch of goons with guns basically. They are not politically intelligent minds that can run a country successfully.
I would think if she stays in Burma and continues with her loud voice of reform she’ll be back in house arrest within the year.