Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 11, 1995 TAG: 9507110068
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RANGOON, BURMA LENGTH: Medium
Several hundred colleagues, supporters and journalists gathered in a light rain outside Suu Kyi's lakeside home in Rangoon as the unofficial news of her release spread.
``What more can I say? I am very happy. The country is happy,'' said Gen. Tin Oo, former defense minister and one-time chairman of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.
Other party leaders entered the compound, but Suu Kyi said through a security guard that she did not immediately want to talk to the media.
Suu Kyi, 50, would have completed her sentence July 19. She was placed under house arrest in 1989 for leading a pro-democracy uprising that the military brutally repressed.
Authorities had hinted recently that they might extend her sentence, and her release came as a surprise. An official source told The Associated Press of the release Monday afternoon, and the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, confirmed the release early Tuesday.
``The order to restrict Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi to her compound has been revoked as of today,'' said a statement dated Monday.
Suu Kyi's husband, Michael Aris, said in Oxford, England, that he was still awaiting confirmation of her release, and declined further comment. A professor at Oxford, he lives with the couple's sons, Alexander and Kim.
The news of the release was greeted by dissidents, human rights activists and foreign leaders as a sign that the military leadership of Burma, which is also known as Myanmar, might be moving toward democracy.
by CNB