Rumours of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's release spreads in Rangoon

by Mizzima News
Saturday, 24 May 2008 15:32

New Delhi - Rumours are doing the rounds in Rangoon that Burma's detained pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was released today from house arrest.

Nyan Win, spokesperson of the National League for Democracy (NLD), Aung San Suu Kyi's party, said, "We also heard that she [Aung San Suu Kyi] has been released, but we cannot confirm the information as yet."

While the information cannot be independently verified, the rumours timed with Aung San Suu Kyi's completion of five years of her latest incarceration on Saturday.

"It might only be rumors, because nothing is confirmed as yet," Nyan Win said.

Meanwhile, a source in Rangoon said the pro-democracy leader was taken by the authorities this morning for a tour to Laputta town in the Irrawaddy division to inspect the devastation caused by the deathly Cyclone Nargis.

But contrary to the information, diplomatic sources in Rangoon brush-off the information as false, saying Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been spotted at her lakeside villa in Rangoon.

Local Residents in Laputta, contacted by Mizzima also said they have not seen the Burmese pro-democracy leader coming to their town nor heard of her possible coming.

Burma's Foreign Minister Nyan Win in a press conference earlier indicated that the detained pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San is unlikely to be release until the junta successfully conducts its planned election in 2010.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent more than 12 of the past 18 years, was last arrested in May 2003 after junta-backed thugs attacked her motorcade during a political tour in central Burma.

But at mid-night on May 24, Saturday, she will complete five years of continuous house arrest. An according to Burma's State Protection Law 1975, the house arrest period of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi cannot be extended.

The law says that a person in Burma who is deemed a 'threat to the sovereignty and security of the State and the peace of the people' can be detained for up to a maximum of five years through a restrictive order, but only renewable one year at a time.

However, sources in Rangoon said, there have been no significant movements near Aung San Suu Kyi's resident in Rangoon's University Avenue that could signal any kind of changes or security guards leaving the place.