Burma generals 'sign Aung San Suu Kyi release order'
Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained for 15 of the past 21 years
Reports from Burma say military authorities have signed an order authorising the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
But hopes she would be freed on Friday were dashed: there has been no official confirmation of a release order.
A leader of her NLD party told 2,000 supporters gathered at its headquarters to go home and return on Saturday.
Ms Suu Kyi has been detained for 15 of the past 21 years, and her house arrest term expires on Saturday.
There has been increased police activity outside her house in Rangoon, Burma's largest city, but no formal statement from military officials.
However, Ms Suu Kyi is not expected to accept a conditional release if it excludes her from political activity.
The 65-year-old was originally due to be released last year, but a case involving an American who swam across Inya Lake to her home, claiming he was on a mission to save her, prompted the latest 18-month detention.
'Significant impact'
The BBC is banned from reporting in Burma but correspondent Alastair Leithead is monitoring developments from the capital of neighbouring Thailand, Bangkok.
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At the scene
A correspondent BBC News, Rangoon
All day rumours have circulated that Aung Sang Suu Kyi could soon be free, and all day the crowds outside the offices of the NLD have grown.
The building is constantly watched by government intelligence agents, yet still they came, defiantly wearing white T-shirts emblazoned with the face of their icon.
News spread that the papers for Aung Sang Suu Kyi's release had been signed, though no one could actually confirm that, the anticipation grew.
The crowd moved off along the road towards the lakeside house that has been the pro-democracy leader's prison for so long.
Then the word came that the release would not after all be today, but perhaps tomorrow, and still no official statement from the military government.
Aung Sang Suu Kyi and her loyal supporters must, it seems, wait a little longer.
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He says a number of sources inside Burma have told the BBC that documents authorising Ms Suu Kyi's release have been signed.
Officials have reportedly visited her home in University Avenue to deliver them.
About 2,000 of her supporters gathered at NLD headquarters in anticipation of her release. Some wore T-shirts saying: "We stand with you."
"Young and old, NLD members and non-members are gathering here with excitement to welcome her. At one point, we got the news that she was released and we all shouted with joy," Yazar, an NLD youth leader, told the BBC's Burmese service.
But by early evening a party leader told people to go home because it seemed unlikely she would be freed on Friday.
A man waiting outside the gate to Ms Suu Kyi's home said little had changed.
"People are waiting in groups here and there, maybe more than 100 in total - many of them are journalists," he told the BBC. "Security is normal as usual. No increase. The gate is closed as before, that's it."
A vehicle passes a checkpoint near the home of Aung San Suu Kyi (12 November 2010) Witnesses said there had been no increased security outside Ms Suu Kyi's home in Rangoon
Ms Suu Kyi's lawyer said: "There is no law to hold her for another day. Her detention period expires on Saturday and she will be released."
"They should release her for the country," Nyan Win added.
Earlier this week, he told the BBC that she would "not accept a limited release".
"[It] must be unconditional. As we all know, she never accepted limited freedom in the past."
Nyan Win said she would meet with the NLD's central committee, members of the media and the public once she was freed.
The British ambassador to Burma, Andrew Heyn, has told the BBC that the UK and EU are pressing hard for Ms Suu Kyi's unconditional release, and that her freedom would have a "significant impact".
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Aung San Suu Kyi
* Born 1945, daughter of Burma's independence hero, General Aung San assassinated in 1947
* 1960: Leaves Burma and is later educated at Oxford University
* 1988: Returns to care for sick mother and is caught up in revolt against then-dictator Ne Win
* 1989: Put under house arrest as Burma junta declares martial law
* 1990: NLD wins election; military disregards result
* 1991: Wins Nobel Peace Prize
* 1995: Released from house arrest, but movements restricted
* 2000: Near continuous period of house arrest begins
* Sept 2007: First public appearance since 2003, greeting protesting Buddhist monks
* November 2010: NLD boycotts first election in 20 years and is disbanded
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Boycott
The increasing speculation that the ruling generals may sanction Aung San Suu Kyi's release follows the country's first elections in 20 years on Sunday.
On Thursday, state media announced that partial results showed that the biggest military-backed party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), had secured a majority in both houses of parliament.
The USDP had won 190 of the 219 seats so far declared in the 330-seat lower House of Representatives, and 95 of 107 seats in the 168-seat upper House of Nationalities, the reports said.
Those elected included the leader of the USDP, Prime Minister Thein Sein, who retired from the military as a general in April to stand.
The junta has said the election marks the transition from military rule to a civilian democracy, but the opposition, many Western governments and human rights groups have said the election was neither free nor fair.
The NLD - which won the last election in 1990 but was never allowed to take power - was ordered to dissolve after refusing to take part.
A quarter of seats in the two new chambers of parliament will be reserved for the military. Any constitutional change will require a majority of more than 75% - meaning that the military will retain a casting vote.
Source : BBC
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Aung San Suu Kyi, soon to be released, faces tough political landscape in Burma
By Tim Johnston
Friday, November 12, 2010; 12:09 PM
BANGKOK - For much of the past 20 years, a crumbling villa on the shores of Rangoon's Lake Inya has been both home and prison to Aung San Suu Kyi, the focal figure in Burma's long struggle for democracy.
Her latest term of house arrest, imposed last year for allowing an exhausted and possibly mentally ill American tourist to stay the night after he swam across the lake, expires Saturday. If she is released, as is expected, it will be into a country suffering its latest bout of dashed hopes for democracy.
Suu Kyi, 65, remains by all accounts unbowed. She has spent the past seven years at the home on Rangoon's University Avenue that she inherited from her father, independence hero Aung San, with only housekeepers for company.
"The energy is still there; the commitment is still there. She has all the things that everyone says - she's poised and elegant and a very impressive figure - but she's also well-informed," said Andrew Heyn, the British ambassador to Burma (also known as Myanmar) and one of few foreigners to have met with Suu Kyi recently. "The message I got when I spoke to her, not only by what she said but by her body language, is that this is a woman who wants to stay involved."
In many ways, Burma's political landscape has changed little since the previous elections in 1990, when Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a landslide victory, only to have it snatched away by the military.
Her latest term of house arrest, imposed last year for allowing an exhausted and possibly mentally ill American tourist to stay the night after he swam across the lake, expires Saturday. If she is released, as is expected, it will be into a country suffering its latest bout of dashed hopes for democracy.
Suu Kyi, 65, remains by all accounts unbowed. She has spent the past seven years at the home on Rangoon's University Avenue that she inherited from her father, independence hero Aung San, with only housekeepers for company.
"The energy is still there; the commitment is still there. She has all the things that everyone says - she's poised and elegant and a very impressive figure - but she's also well-informed," said Andrew Heyn, the British ambassador to Burma (also known as Myanmar) and one of few foreigners to have met with Suu Kyi recently. "The message I got when I spoke to her, not only by what she said but by her body language, is that this is a woman who wants to stay involved."
In many ways, Burma's political landscape has changed little since the previous elections in 1990, when Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a landslide victory, only to have it snatched away by the military.
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Factbox: Facts about Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi
(Reuters) - Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of Myanmar's fight against military dictatorship, is scheduled to be released from house arrest on November 13, six days after a military-backed party won the first election in two decades.
Here are some facts about Suu Kyi, who went from being an housewife in England to a Nobel peace prize laureate incarcerated for 15 of the last 21 years because of her fight for democracy in the former Burma.
-- Born in Rangoon (now Yangon) in June 1945, she is daughter of General Aung San, an independence hero assassinated in 1947. Her mother, Khin Kyi, was also a prominent figure.
-- She studied politics in New Delhi and philosophy, politics and economics at Britain's Oxford University. In 1972, she married British academic Michael Aris.
-- Suu Kyi returned to Yangon in April 1988 to take care of her dying mother at a time of countrywide pro-democracy protests against the army regime. Keen to continue her father's legacy, she entered politics and helped set up the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, becoming its secretary-general and calling for an end to military rule.
-- The junta placed the charismatic and popular Suu Kyi under house arrest in July 1989 for "endangering the state." The next year, even without her, the NLD won 392 of 485 parliamentary seats in Myanmar's first election in almost 30 years. The military refused to relinquish power.
-- Suu Kyi, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, has been in prison or under house arrest off and on for 15 years since 1989.
-- Her husband died in Britain in 1999. Suu Kyi declined an offer from the junta to go to Britain for his funeral, fearing she would not be allowed back if she left.
-- She was initially freed in 1995, but was not allowed to travel outside Yangon to meet supporters. A pro-junta gang attacked a convoy carrying Suu Kyi, top party officials and supporters near Depayin town in 2003. The junta said four people were killed. Rights groups said as many as 70 were killed in the ambush. She was detained again soon after.
- She was found guilty on August 11, 2009, of breaking a security law by allowing American intruder John Yettaw to stay at her lakeside home for two nights. Critics said the charges were trumped up to stop her from having any influence over the polls.
-- She has since made several offers to the junta to lobby the international community to lift a wide range of sanctions on the country, most of which have been in place for more than two decades. Junta strongman Than Shwe never responded and the regime described her move as "insincere" and "dishonest."
-- Suu Kyi's said she "would not dream" of taking part in last Sunday's election and her NLD boycotted the vote. As a result, the party was officially dissolved.
- A breakaway NLD faction did contest, but won only a handful of seats.
(Compiled by Bangkok Newsroom; Editing by Robert Birsel and Ron Popeski)
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She was a fighter. She fought for the people in her
country. She does not live for wealth, prosperity and fame.
She was imprisoned for reasons that are not clear. Denied
her right to form a government. Her country is not
developed and its people are still living below the poverty
level while they are able to live better. She needs the
support of the international community to change the
current situation towards a better life. Let her free, gave
her the opportunity to bring a better life to the people of
her country.
International Human Rights Activist and Democracy Leader
Nobel Peace Prize, Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award,
Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient .
Nobel Peace Prize 1991
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in
1991. The decision of the Nobel Committee mentions:[113]
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the
Nobel Peace Prize for 1991 to Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar
(Burma) for her non-violent struggle for democracy and
human rights.
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