THOUSANDS OF cheering supporters greeted Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday after she was freed from seven years of house arrest at the weekend.
The Nobel laureate has vowed to continue her fight for human rights in the military-run southeast Asian country.
“The basis of democratic freedom is freedom of speech,” she said. “I am for national reconciliation. I am for dialogue. Whatever authority I have, I will use it to that end. I hope people will support me.”
Some 5,000 supporters gave her a rousing round of applause and shouted “We love Suu” as she entered the headquarters of her now defunct political party, the National League for Democracy.
Ms Suu Kyi has come to symbolise the democracy movement in Burma, and her release from house arrest – she has been in detention for more than 15 of the last 21 years – has been likened by some activists to that of Nelson Mandela’s epoch-changing release from jail in South Africa.
She was released from house arrest nearly a week after an election that was swept by political parties backed by the ruling junta, which have been condemned as a sham by many countries and seen as a way for the military government to gain legitimacy by nefarious means.
She called for face-to-face talks with the junta’s leader but also urged her followers to try and work towards national reconciliation.
“If we want to get what we want, we have to do it in the right way; otherwise we will not achieve our goal, however noble or correct it may be,” the 65-year-old warned.
She thanked her supporters and asked them to keep in their thoughts the 2,200 political prisoners still imprisoned.
“If my people are not free, how can I say I am free? Either we are all free together or we are not free together,” she said.
The army has run Burma since 1962 and has not been slow to resort to jailing Ms Suu Kyi if her remarks rock the boat too much, so many are watching closely to see how long her current taste of freedom lasts.
There are also fears for her personal safety. In 2003, pro-junta thugs ambushed her motorcade, killing and injuring supporters in what many believed was a military-orchestrated attempt on her life.
“Her struggle has become a symbol for all humanity, of what we are capable of – best and worst. Her very grace so infuriating to the bully government whose brutish gorging of the country’s rich resources have left the people of Burma poor and hungry,” rock band U2 said in a statement.
