Is there a nonviolent movement today that is not also a global democracy movement? In other words, do you think the US will help Suu Kyi the way it did Otpor? What interests of ours will we have to surrender to promote human rights, justice and peace in Burma (Myanmar)? This is where our hagiography of King and Gandhi will be put sorely to the test.

by Hla Hla Htay – Mon Nov 15, 11:43 am ET

AFP – Myanmar’s newly-released opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi addresses supporters at the National …

YANGON (AFP) – Newly freed democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi called on Monday for a “non-violent revolution” in Myanmar as she knuckled down to the task of rebuilding her weakened opposition movement.

Speaking at her party headquarters in Yangon, where she met with senior regional members for the first time in years, she told the BBC she was sure democracy would eventually come to her country, although she did not know when.

“I think we also have to try to make this thing happen… Velvet revolution sounds a little strange in the context of the military, but a non-violent revolution. Let’s put it that way,” the 65-year-old said.

Suu Kyi was freed from house arrest on Saturday, less than a week after a controversial election that cemented the junta’s decades-long grip on power but was widely criticised by democracy activists and Western leaders as a sham.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who has been locked up by Myanmar’s regime for 15 of the past 21 years, gave her first political speech in seven years on Sunday, appealing to thousands of her jubilant supporters for unity.

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Someone who has worked with Burmese loyal to Suu Kyi, posting to a professional listserv, recommends this report.

 

by NPR STAFF AND WIRES

Soe Than Win/AFP/Getty Images

Supporters of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi gather in Yangon, Myanmar, in anticipation of her release Saturday.

Khin Maung Win/AP

Suu Kyi talks to supporters at the gate of her home Saturday.

text size A A ANovember 13, 2010

Several thousand jubilant supporters streamed to the residence of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi as Myanmar’s military government freed its archrival after years of house arrest.

Suu Kyi appeared at the gate to her Yangon home, smiling and dressed in a traditional Burmese jacket. “There is a time to be quiet and a time to talk,” she told her cheering supporters. “People must work in unison; only then can we achieve our goal.”

Earlier on, officials read the 65-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate her release notice. Her supporters surged forward after riot police stationed in the area left the scene and a barbed-wire barricade near her residence was removed.

Suu Kyi, whose latest period of detention spanned 7 1/2 years, has come to symbolize the struggle for democracy in the Southeast Asian nation ruled by the military since 1962. Suu Kyi has been jailed or under house arrest for more than 15 of the last 21 years.

While her release elated many — from ordinary Myanmar citizens to world leaders — some warned her struggle was far from over.

London-based rights group Amnesty International estimates more than 2,200 political prisoners remain jailed by the junta.

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