Aung San Suu Kyi returns home under house arrest

Aung San Suu Kyi returns home under house arrest

Agencies, Jakarta

Myanmar's prodemocracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will be put under
house arrest for the third time in her political career after
being discharged from the hospital where she underwent major
surgery, her doctor said on Friday.

"She will go home tonight (Friday night)," her personal
physician Tin Myo Win was quoted by Agence France Presse as
saying.

"She will go home but will still be effectively under house
arrest. This has been communicated to me by the authorities
concerned."

Suu Kyi has been under house arrest twice before, the first
time for six years from 1989 until 1995, while the second stint
ended in May 2002.

She was arrested on May 30, 2003, after a clash between her
supporters and a pro-military junta gang. Following her arrest
she was held in detention at a secret location, before being
admitted to a private hospital in Yangon on Sept. 17 for a major
operation.

In a statement read out by her doctor, the 58-year-old Nobel
peace laureate thanked her supporters who have maintained a vigil
outside the hospital where she was operated on for gynecological
and other unspecified conditions.

"I ask specifically that nobody should want to see me leave
the hospital. Anybody who wishes to see me once I am home should
make arrangements through the authorities," she said in her first
public comments since her arrest in May.

"I thank you for your warm concern, and I am confident that
you have equal concern for my supporters," she said, referring to
the leaders of her National League for Democracy who are also in
detention.

In Jakarta, Ali Alatas, President Megawati Soekarnoputri's
special envoy, said he did not win any commitments from the
Myanmar junta on how or when Suu Kyi would be released, despite
being told the restrictions on the prodemocracy leader were
temporary.

However, the military junta "did indicate that they will give
very careful consideration" to Indonesia's request for her early
release, Alatas said.

"Hopefully there will be a positive outcome," the former
foreign minister said. "So let's see what happens in the coming
days."

During a one-week visit to Myanmar, Alatas held talks with top
generals. Indonesia, which is the current chair of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), would like to
resolve the issue before the ASEAN Summit is held in Bali on Oct.
7 and Oct. 8, with Myanmar in attendance.

Alatas said ASEAN does not want "irrelevant issues" to disturb
the summit's important work of putting in place the future
foundations of ASEAN.

"This is the approach that we used to discuss this issue and
it was fully understood by the Myanmarese government," Alatas
said.

He said that he expected there would be progress on the issue
of Suu Kyi ahead of the Bali summit.

Asked what would happen if the prodemocracy leader was still
in detention by the opening of the conference, Alatas said: "We
will cross that bridge when we get there."

Alatas served as foreign minister under former president
Soeharto, who was considered a friend and a role model by
Myanmar's ruling generals.

Few observers were willing to speculate on Friday on how long
this latest detention could last, but said that next week's visit
by United Nations envoy to Myanmar Razali Ismail would be
critical to Suu Kyi's future.

Razali, who brokered landmark talks between the junta and the
opposition leader in October 2000, is expected to push the ruling
generals to implement a new "road map" for reform which they
unveiled last month.

Security at Suu Kyi's home on University Drive was extremely
tight on Friday, with military intelligence agents blocking
access to the road to everyone but residents.

During times of political tension, the road is cordoned off
with barbed-wire barricades to prevent people from passing by the
famous whitewashed villa.