Backers Await Activist’s Release

Supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi were hopeful Friday that the Nobel Peace laureate and leader of democracy forces in Myanmar would soon be set free after 19 months under house arrest.

Speculation has been rife in Yangon, Myanmar’s capital, that the charismatic Suu Kyi could be released within weeks or even days as the nation’s military rulers seek to end more than a decade of international isolation.

Military leaders, who blocked Suu Kyi’s party from taking power after it swept parliamentary elections in 1990, have met with her in recent days, apparently to negotiate the terms of her release.

It is unclear, however, whether the regime is seeking to impose restrictions that would be too onerous for Suu Kyi to accept, such as limits on her ability to travel around the country.

Suu Kyi, 56, is one of the world’s foremost democracy advocates under arrest. When other Nobel Peace Prize winners gathered last December in Norway for a peace symposium, she was conspicuously absent.

The United States, other nations and international aid groups have imposed sanctions on Myanmar that have contributed to the country’s economic stagnation in the last decade. The government’s willingness to consider freeing Suu Kyi indicates its interest in securing outside help. “They realize they are in trouble economically and they have to do something,” said one Yangon-based diplomat, who requested anonymity. “They need a lot of help, and they are not going to get it if she is not released.”

The government apparently was so close to freeing her this week that it began tidying up the street leading to her lakeside residence. Officials of her party, the National League for Democracy, predicted that she would be released within days.

U.N. special envoy Razali Ismail, a Malaysian who has spearheaded negotiations between Suu Kyi and the regime, said after a trip to Myanmar late last month that he expected a breakthrough soon.

However, negotiations for her release appeared to stall in recent days.

“Initially, the government may have had a plan to release her,” one supporter said. “But reading the signs, it seems that Suu Kyi may not agree with the conditions imposed by the government.”

One sticking point may be the military’s reluctance to free 1,800 political prisoners, many of whom are affiliated with her party. She has called for their release in the past.

Since late last year, the government has released about 200 prisoners. It said Friday that five more will be freed.

“The release is very slow,” said Aung Zaw, a magazine editor who lives in exile in Thailand. “Five is kind of a joke. People are hoping for a big breakthrough. If we go at this rate, we will have to wait another 10 or 20 years for everyone to be released.”

The military took power in a 1988 coup and ruthlessly crushed democracy demonstrations. The regime changed the name of the country from Burma to Myanmar and the name of the capital from Rangoon to Yangon.

Suu Kyi, the Oxford-educated daughter of Burmese independence leader Aung San, was kept under house arrest from 1989 to 1995. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

After her release, she was prohibited from leaving Yangon. In August 2000, she attempted to leave the city and was stopped by police. Refusing to turn back, she camped in her car for days by the side of the road before she was again placed under house arrest.

Today, soldiers guard her house, her telephone line has been cut and barricades keep visitors away.