Aung San Suu Kyi May Be Released

CHAN:
Now to Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi was due to be released yesterday. Sunday (May 25) was the official end of her five-year house arrest. Suu Kyi, now 62, has spent 12 of the last 18 years in detention, after being elected Prime Minister in 1989. The walls to her house collapsed after cyclone nargis, but Suu Kyi was unhurt. Here's more:

STORY:
Supporters of Suu Kyi are hopeful. After all, the junta is appealing for almost 12 billion dollars in foreign aid, and releasing Suu Kyi could be an effective good will gesture to win over potential donors.

But some believe that even if she is released, she will be forced out of politics and the public eye.

[Debbie Strothard, Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma]:
"Well, we think technically she may be released so that the regime is able to follow their own laws. But we don't believe that she will actually be free because they will probably detain her under another law. They may be under pressure to allow donors to meet with her so that they can get their hands on $11.7 billion dollars that they need to reconstruct the area."

Suu Kyi is enormously popular among Burmese people, who refer to her as 'the lady,' or using an honorific term meaning 'aunt.' And she might have posed a threat to the military regime in the upcoming 2010 elections, but a clause in the junta's new constitution disqualifies her from ever holding office.

[Debbie Strothard, Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma]:
"So it is a constitution that is making sure Aung San Suu Kyi could never lead the country. So, it is, it took 14 years for them to make this constitution. Now the regime is claiming that once this constitution is adopted that they will have general elections in 2010. And we have to remind them that general elections doesn't mean just electing generals."

Still, the Junta may be under pressure to allow donors to at least meet with Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi's family lives abroad, and she had previously been offered freedom if she would leave the country - an offer she rejected.

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