Myanmar junta permits reopening of Suu Kyi's party HQ
Myanmar junta permits reopening of Suu Kyi's party HQ
Aye Aye Win Associated Press Yangon
Myanmar's military government reopened the headquarters of Aung San Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party on Saturday, almost a year after shutting all of the party's offices and arresting its top leaders, party officials said.
It was unclear whether the step indicates the ruling junta is preparing to release Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who remains under house arrest.
The decision comes a month before the government is to convene a convention to draft a new constitution, part of its stated plan to move the country toward democracy.
Three government officials broke open the wax seal on a lock on the National League for Democracy party's office near the Shwedagon Pagoda in the capital, Yangon, said Maung Maung Yin, an NLD official.
The party, which has spearheaded the democracy movement in the Southeast Asian country for the last 16 years, welcomed the move but called for Suu Kyi's release.
"It's good that the office is reopened. We now have a place to meet. We are hoping for more good things to happen like the release of political prisoners," Nyunt Wei, the party's national treasurer, told The Associated Press.
The government appeared to be bowing to intense international pressure to ease restrictions against democracy proponents. But critics say such concessions are aimed at deflecting criticism rather than granting greater freedom.
Maung Maung Yin said the three officials came to his house in the morning and asked him to accompany them while they broke open the seal at the dilapidated two-story building.
He said the government officials told him they would not go inside the premises. "They said, 'it is open now,"' Maung Maung Yin said.
Later Saturday, party members gathered to clean up the headquarters and sweep away fallen leaves from around the building.
The junta plans to convene a constitutional convention on May 17, part of its seven-point "roadmap" toward democracy in the country, which has been under military rule since 1962.
Last week, the junta freed two other top NLD leaders -- party Chairman Aung Shwe and Secretary U Lwin -- so they can attend the convention. But the NLD said it cannot decide whether to participate until Suu Kyi and party Vice Chairman Tin Oo are also released.
On Saturday, U Lwin told reporters he had not been informed about the reopening beforehand and demanded that the ruling junta also reopen NLD branch offices countrywide.