Aung Suu Kyi on the Brink of Being Released this Saturday

by Sony Sahota | November 12, 2010 at 02:31 pm

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Myanmar's military junta put the final arrangements in place for the release of Aung Suu Kyi from house arrest just over a week after staging widely condemned elections.

The pro-democracy leader spent 15 of the past 21 years in custody. The leader should be able to leave her crumbling villa for the first time since 2003 this Saturday.

Around 400 people holding placecards with her picture gathered in front of the headquarters of Ms Suu Kyi's now defunct National League for Democracy (NLD). Many more waited on a street leading to her heavily guarded villa.

Reports of military authorities signed an order authorizing Ms. Suu Kyi's release Saturday. Last night she was said to negotiate an unconditional release, however the junta is expected to place limits on her travel and political activities. Earlier she said she would reject any attempt to curb her political activities by placing restrictions on her freedom.

The NLD was dissolved when it boycotted Sunday's elections. The party is widely viewed as the most potent threat to the military regime, which ruled Burma for 48 years.

Police patrols across the former capital Rangoon was visibly stepped up yesterday .

Two hundred riot police armed with assault rifles gathered near a barbed-wire barricade close to the mansion at Rangoon's 54 University Avenue where Ms. Suu kyi has been held with virtually now communication with the outside world.

Ms. Suu Kyi will be under pressure to challenge the results of Sunday's elections-the first in 20 years since the NLD won a landslide vote ignored by the junta-because of widespread electoral fraud.