©The Star (Used by permission)
YANGON: Military–ruled Myanmar finally freed Nobel Peace Prize–winner Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday after 15 years of house arrest, giving the country a powerful pro–democracy voice just days after a widely criticised election.
"There is a time to be quiet and a time to talk. People must work in unison.
"Only then can we achieve our goal," Suu Kyi told thousands of cheering supporters at the gates of her lakeside compound.
She then retreated into her home for the first meeting with her National League for Democracy party in seven years as world leaders – including many in Malaysia – applauded her release, expressed relief and urged the military junta in the former Burma to free more of its estimated 2,100 political prisoners.
Suu Kyi had her house arrest extended last August, when a court found she had broken a law protecting the state against "subversive elements" by allowing an American intruder to stay at her home for two nights.
Suu Kyi has been in detention for most of the past 21 years because of her opposition to 48 years of military rule in Myanmar.