Aung San Suu Kyi Freed

The Associated Press reports that Burma’s long imprisoned pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been released from house-arrest. The Voice of America provides some good analysis.

This has happened before. Daw Suu’s party won over eighty percent of the 1990 election. As the head of the party she is at least technically the last democratically elected leader of the country. But she never served due to a military coup, and instead has spent fifteen of the last twenty-one years in detention.

The military dictators are at the end of what is widely seen as a fraudulent election, and some see this as simple window dressing in that process.

Time will tell…

Amnesty International reports:

In this season of giving thanks, we are thrilled and grateful for the release today of Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar (Burma)! The government released her after seven and a half years of house arrest.

Will she re-form the National League for Democracy? Will she continue to advocate for democracy? Will her release be for good this time, or will the government find another reason for imprisoning her yet again? Only time will tell.

While we couldn’t be happier about Suu Kyi’s release, time continues to run short for the over 2,200 other political prisoners who are still behind bars in some of the most notorious prisons in the world. They from suffer lack of medical care, proper nutrition, and lack of contact with their families. Many are imprisoned hundreds of miles from their homes, making travel for their families difficult if not impossible.

So while we give thanks for Aung San Suu Kyi’s release, let’s do something for the others. Join us in calling for freedom for all prisoners of conscience in Myanmar!