Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Release of Aung San Suu Kyi Something World Has Been Waiting For

Aired May 06, 2002 - 05:08   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And now we want to get more reaction in Myanmar to the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Our Tom Mintier is in Yangon and he joins us by telephone this morning -- hello, Tom.

What can you tell us?

TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. The release of Aung San Suu Kyi is something the world has been waiting for. For 19 months she has been under house detention at her home here in Yangon. Both the military and the police basically preventing her from leaving or anyone from coming to her home.

The scene at the National League for Democracy headquarters was electrifying today. As she got out of the car, about 2,000 people gathered around it. They seemed to come from everywhere.

Now, news of her release has not been publicized here in Myanmar, but most of the international community knew about it. There were diplomats whop did come to the NLD headquarters to hear a press conference by Aung San Suu Kyi.

Now, the release came about overnight. It's been rumored for days, if not more than a week, that the release of Aung San Suu Kyi was imminent. But it was one of those on again, off again things. Finally, in the middle of the night they made the decision, apparently, to go public and have it announced that Suu Kyi would be released.

Now, she will be allowed to travel. There will be no restrictions on her movement. And that's basically what brought her to the house arrest, anyway. She tried to travel to Mandalay for a political rally. Now the government says she will be free to travel.

Aung San Suu Kyi, her first public comments, talking about her role as the NLD Party leader. She says that there is still a lot to be done here. She criticized the military government briefly, saying that the process of freeing the political prisoners -- there are still more than 1,500 to 1,600 that are still being held in detention -- she says that process needs to be sped up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) AUNG SAN SUU KYI, PRO-DEMOCRACY LEADER: My role has always been to try to do my duties as the general secretary of the National League for Democracy, which is a party at the service of the people. The party was founded in order to bring democracy to Burma. So that is our task. That is what we have to do. And I as general secretary of the party must do everything I can to make sure that democracy comes to Burma weekly and comes in the right way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MINTIER: Aung San Suu Kyi would not go into the details of the negotiations that resulted in her release, but we did talk to an official government spokesman for the Union of Myanmar and he says that the era of confrontation has ended, the era of cooperation is beginning, calling her release today a new page of the history here at Myanmar, saying that this has been something that has been discussed for a long time and the government has made the decision to release her from house arrest, to allow her to conduct political activity, to allow her party, the NLD, to operate.

Now, the reaction from the international community is something we'll have to wait and see how it develops over the coming days. But she thanked the international community and even the news media for contributing to the discussion and the dialogue that has existed for the last two years to ensure that she, indeed, was released -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Thanks a lot.

Tom Mintier reporting live for us from Myanmar this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com