Aung San Suu Kyi reportedly to be freed in November

YANGON - A government minister reportedly said opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi would be released from house arrest in November, sources said Monday.

Home Minister Major General Maung Oo reportedly told a meeting of local officials in Mandalay Division Thursday that the Nobel peace laureate would be freed after her current house arrest term ends.

Suu Kyi, the 64-year-old leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), has spent about 14 of the last 20 years under house arrest or in custody.

Her sentences have regularly been extended by the military junta, most recently in August for 18 months on charges of allowing a US citizen to stay at her home, after he swam across Inya Lake to the family compound in Yangon in May.

The 18-month sentence was dated from the time of her arrest May 13, meaning that it would expire in November, sources said.

“I hope she will be released in November, according to the sentence,” NLD spokesman U Nyan Win said Monday. “But I cannot say definitely that she will be free.”

The opposition, international human rights groups and foreign governments are insisting that Suu Kyi and other political prisoners be released before general elections due to be held this year.

The government has not yet set a date for the elections.

In 1990, the NLD won a landslide victory in the last general election held in the country, but the junta refused to allow the party to form a government.