Suu Kyi Home After Surgery, but Still Held

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, detained by the military junta since May, was discharged from a hospital after surgery and returned to her home. Her doctor said she would be under house arrest.

The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner had been held at an unknown location since her arrest, disrupting a reconciliation process between the military rulers and the opposition and increasing the country’s diplomatic isolation.

The 58-year-old Suu Kyi had what was described as major surgery a week ago. In its first comment since she was hospitalized, the government said the surgery was for a gynecological condition. It did not give details.

Myanmar has remained defiant in the face of intense international pressure to free Suu Kyi, who is being detained for the third time since 1989.

She was detained this time after she and her followers were caught in a violent clash with a pro-government mob in northern Myanmar, also known as Burma. Afterward, the junta cracked down on her party, halting a reconciliation process brokered in October 2000 by the U.N. special envoy to Myanmar.

The detention further isolated Myanmar, already shunned by many nations because of its human rights record.

The junta has said she would be freed but has not said when.

Myanmar’s military seized power in 1988 after crushing a pro-democracy uprising. It held elections in 1990 but refused to recognize the results after Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won.