inothernews:

From the New York Times:

Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, was freed from seven and a half years of house arrest on Saturday and was greeted at the gate of her compound by thousands of jubilant supporters.

She stood waving and smiling as people cheered, chanted and sang the national anthem in a blur of camera flashes. She held a white handkerchief in one hand.

“Thank you for welcoming me like this,” she said, clutching the iron bars of her gate as she looked out at the cheering crowd. “We haven’t seen each other for so long, I have so much to tell you.”

She said she would speak again on Sunday at the headquarters of her now defunct political party, the National League for Democracy.

“We must unite!” she said. “If we are united, we can get what we want.”

She had spent 15 of the last 21 years under house arrest, and her release had been the leading demand of Western nations seeking to pressure the ruling junta on questions of human rights and political freedom.

The junta did not make a public statement regarding her release. But her lawyer, U Nyan Win, was asked by someone in the crowd whether Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi was really free. “Yes,” he said. And shortly afterward, the barricades around her compound were removed, and the security men walked away. President Obama said in a statement that the United States welcomed “her long overdue release,” adding: “She is a hero of mine and a source of inspiration for all who work to advance basic human rights in Burma and around the world.”

And now we’ll see if the ruling military junta, which rigged last week’s elections, will continue to allow her voice to be heard.

(Photo: EPA via the Times)