Burma's military government has released the pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest in Rangoon for the past 20 months. A government spokesman told the Reuters news agency she was “at liberty to carry out all activities, including her party's” from Monday 6th May.
Aung San Suu Kyi has not had an easy time in her native country, Burma. She is the daughter of assassinated independence hero Aung San, and was held under house arrest from 1989 to 1995. She was placed back under house arrest in 2000 when she tried to travel by train to Mandalay in defiance of restrictions put on her. As a result of this, and Burma's human rights record, Burma has faced international isolation and economic sanctions. Aung San Suu Kyi returned to Burma to nurse her dying mother in 1988 and in 1990 her party was elected to power, but this was ignored by the ruling army. In 1991, she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. She was not allowed to return to Oxford, England, where her husband, an Oxford don was dying of prostrate cancer as she knew that she would not be allowed to re-enter the country.
If anyone would like to read more about Burma and what has been happening, the Beetle recommends reading a fantastic book by a Burmese writer called Pascal Khoo Thwe, From the Land of Green Ghosts – A Burmese Odyssey, published by Harper Collins. It is an amazing read – see www.fireandwater.com for details.