Burma’s junta appeared set to release opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house detention on Saturday evening in a bid to placate international condemnation of their regime.
"She will be released some time after 6 pm (1130 GMT)," said a senior police official who asked to remain anonymous. Hundreds of her supporters, members of the opposition National League for Democracy party and reporters have been waiting outside her house-cum-prison in Yangon since Friday in anticipation of her release.
Supporters also gathered at the NLD headquarters in Yangon, where it is presumed that Suu Kyi, 65, will go after her anticipated release. NLD members sported T-shirts saying, "We stand with Aung San Suu Kyi" in English. "I love her very much," said one elderly woman. "She will save the country."
Security personnel have not prevented the crowds from gathering, which is unusual in the military-controlled state. Suu Kyi is serving an 18-month house-arrest handed down by a criminal court in July 2009 for breaking the terms of her previous incarceration by allowing an uninvited US national to swim to her lakeside home.
The sentence is due to expire on Saturday because it began May 13, 2009, when she was last arrested. Burma’s junta chief, Senior General Than Shwe, is the only person empowered to order Suu Kyi's release.
The international community has been calling for her release either before or after the country's first election in 20 years, held on November 7. The proxy party of the junta, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), was expected to win by a landslide.
The polls have been widely condemned for being neither free nor fair and the USDP was accused of tampering with advance votes and using inducements and intimidation to win its seats. In the capital Naypyitaw, senior junta leader Shwe Mann, for instance, won in his constituency with 38,572 votes, of which 21,931 were advance votes, local media reports said. The final results have yet to be announced.
It is widely believed that the regime has agreed to release Suu Kyi to deflect international condemnation of the election which may, despite its many flaws, signal a step forward for the country. Burma has been under military rule since 1962. If released, Suu Kyi will have much to do. "Daw (Madam) Aung San Suu Kyi will have to do a lot of jobs including looking into the complaints from states and divisions about the unfair elections," said HIV/AIDS campaign leader Phy Phy Thin.
The Nobel Peace laureate will also need to address divisions among her political supporters. A faction of the NLD, the National Democratic Force, broke away to contest the elections. It performed poorly, partly because of the rigged polls but also because of lack of support from the NLD who chose to boycott the polls and urged people not to vote, analysts said.