Myanmar frees pro-democracy leader

YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar's pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was freed from house arrest Saturday, setting her on the path to a possible new confrontation with the generals who had kept her out of the public eye for 15 of the past 21 years.

As she stepped out of the lakeside compound where she had been confined for the past 7 1/2 years in her latest period of house arrest, she was greeted by thousands of jubilant supporters, some of them in tears. Waving and smiling, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate barely could be heard over the cheering and chanting.

"We have a lot of things to do," said Suu Kyi, 65, the charismatic and relentlessly outspoken woman who has come to symbolize the struggle for democracy in the isolated and secretive nation once known as Burma. The country has been ruled by the military since 1962.

Her release, five days after an election in Myanmar, suggested the generals who rule the country were confident of their position and ready to face down the devotion she still commands among her countrymen and among Western nations.

But the election itself, which drew accusations of fraud from almost all opposition parties, opened a new area of discontent that Suu Kyi's lawyers said she planned to exploit by joining their challenge to the legitimacy of the election.

The government made no immediate statement regarding her release, but the police removed barricades from around her villa and allowed crowds to flood into the street. She said she would make a public address Sunday.

The scene at the gates of her compound suggested her popularity was undiminished.

"She is our mother — she is our mother!" cried a woman in the crowd.

It was the kind of outpouring Suu Kyi had experienced twice before on earlier releases from house arrest, and both times she was detained again after testing the limits of her freedom.

Democracy struggle

Suu Kyi, something of an accidental political leader, took up the democracy struggle in 1988.

Having spent much of her life abroad, she returned home to take care of her ailing mother just as mass demonstrations were breaking out against 25 years of military rule. She was quickly thrust into a leadership role, mainly because she was the daughter of Aung San, who led Myanmar to independence from Britain.

She rode out the military's bloody suppression of street demonstrations to help found the National League for Democracy (NLD). Her defiance gained her fame and honor, most notably the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.

Her popularity threatened the country's military rulers. In 1989, she was detained on trumped-up national-security charges and put under house arrest.

Suu Kyi's most recent term of detention began in 2003 after she had drawn increasingly large and enthusiastic crowds as she toured the country.

A band of organized thugs attacked her convoy, and she was sent to prison and then back to house arrest.

There was no immediate word on whether the ruling junta had tried to set conditions on her latest release.

One of her lawyers, U Kyi Maung, said that even if no formal conditions were placed, her movements still could be restricted, as they had been at times after her previous releases.

The immediate response from Western capitals to her release was one of celebration. Her freedom has been their first demand in calling for political freedoms and respect for human rights in Myanmar.

"She is a hero of mine," President Obama said, "and a source of inspiration for all who work to advance basic human rights in Burma and around the world."

World leaders also tempered their jubilation with warnings to the junta to leave her alone.

The U.N. secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, said he expected "no further restrictions will be placed on her" and urged the junta "to build on today's action by releasing all remaining political prisoners."

Political plans

Suu Kyi did not immediately talk about her plans. But another of her lawyers, U Nyan Win, said earlier that she intended to become engaged in political activities.

It was not clear what these activities might be, but the future poses a challenge to her, several analysts said.

"This is a very, very different political landscape than when she was released the last time," said Thant Myint-U, a historian and former U.N. official who has written widely on the country. "The country is facing a whole slew of new challenges and opportunities."

Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, won the previous election, in 1990, but the generals annulled the result and clung to power. The victory gave her the standing to speak as the nation's disenfranchised leader. That result now has been superseded by the new election.

The National League declined to participate in the recent election, calling it unfair and undemocratic, and was therefore required to disband. Party leaders said it would remain the platform for Suu Kyi's activities. It is now no longer the only center for opposition or independent action.

Although the newly elected Parliament is seen mainly as a mechanism for the military to legitimize its control, it nevertheless changes the political dynamic with new structures and new personalities.

There will be new opposition parties, however small and weak; new political officeholders, however limited their scope for independent action; and the first generation of military leaders who have not been schooled at all in the West and who perceive the United States as their biggest strategic threat.

"The election is only a small part of a much bigger political transition taking place," said Thant Myint-U, who added that will include a new president and an appointed new government, the creation of regional structures as well as a national-security council and other institutions created by a new constitution.

"In many ways, Myanmar is not the isolated, closed-off country that it was 10 or 20 years ago," Thant Myint-U said. "It's a very complex place. I think we could say for sure that this year, these couple of years, are without a doubt the country's most important watershed in a generation."

Billions of dollars in investment have been pouring in from China and other Asian nations, and although the people of Myanmar still struggle in abject poverty, the ruling class is better off than ever.

"The biggest change is that the regime is flush with money and it's much more self-confident than it used to be," said Sean Turnell, an expert on the Myanmar economy with Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.

The affluence is based on new income from oil and gas pipelines.

New challenges

Suu Kyi's challenges will begin with the need to mend fences within the democratic opposition, which fractured over the question of contesting the election. Now that she is free, she is committed to seeking the release of 2,100 other political prisoners.

And if she intends to offer alternative ideas or leadership, she must consider a rising challenge that the government now faces, the danger of increased conflict among ethnic insurgencies whose cease-fires are at risk of collapse.

"She'll be facing a mountain of expectation and challenges," said Aung Zaw, editor of The Irrawaddy, a Thailand-based exile magazine.

Seth Mydans contributed reporting from Bangkok, and Liz Robbins from New York. Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.