Democracy activist and 1991 Nobel Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was released a few hours ago. Placed repeatedly under house arrest since her party won the National League for Democracy won 83% of the seats in the 1990 parliamentary elections but was denied power by military, she had been under the same undisrupted house arrest since May 2003.

This liberation occurred as a result of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asia Nations) two-day summit which started yesterday.
Breaking with the ASEAN tradition of non-intervention in internal affairs, the south-east Asian leaders urged Myanmar for political reforms and the freeing of detainees.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan praised the ASEAN leaders for their call on Myanmar.

Myanmar has been living under a political regime since 1962, and is horrifically famous for being the poorest country of South-East Asia, its complete lack of any kind of freedom, and its extended use of child soldiers in armies (official or not).


Find out more on Myanmar here, more on the ASEAN summit decision here, and more on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi here.