Free Republic

Millions of Burmese took to the polls Sunday in an election billed as the country's freest vote in a quarter-century. Victory for [Aung San] Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, would weaken the power of the military-linked party, which is led by President Thien Sein, a former general. In Yangon, the country's largest city, people lined up at polling stations before sunrise. Pro-democracy supporters are optimistic the election could be the beginning of real change in the country, which has been isolated for decades due to its repressive military-dominated government. While the administration of current President Thein Sein...

Today, President Obama spoke in Burma – or as he termed it, Myanmar, despite official US practice to call the country Burma – and repeatedly botched the name of the country’s famed Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, instead calling her Aung YAN Suu Kyi. Then he called President Thein Sein “President Sein,” which was a diplomatic snafu, since the president of Burma is to be called by his full name. His speech was just as bad. After getting through the basics – acting as though his doctrine, not President Bush’s multiple actions on behalf of democracy in Burma, had...

As Barack Obama appeared in the home of Myanmar pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon, the U.S. president planted a platonic, but very affectionate, kiss on her cheek (to which she appeared to slightly recoil in embarrassment). This act has surprisingly elicited little or no comment in the global press thus far – quite unusual since public displays of affection represent a grave breach of custom in virtually all Asian countries. Obama likely did not mean to offend his Burmese hosts, however, as a well-travelled man of the world, he must have known that a kiss – especially...

Barack Obama blunders again on the world stage By Nile Gardiner World Last updated: November 19th, 2012 Barack Obama: hardly off to a flying start It is only two weeks since his re-election, and his second term remains two months away, but Barack Obama is already blundering again on the world stage, with the kind of gaffes that would have been plastered on the front page of The New York Times if they had been committed by George W. Bush when he was in the White House. Obama's first term was littered with foreign policy gaffes, and there is every...

Tune in at 10am for the live webcast of our human freedom event featuring Pres & Mrs Bush & Aung San Suu Kyi http://t.co/6FhKWnJr Submit your Q's for Aung San Suu Kyi using hash tag #FreedomCollection & watch her answers live here: http://t.co/dfDOoYwC -- A Celebration of Human Freedom May 15, 2012 On Tuesday, May 15, the George W. Bush Presidential Center will hold a special event to celebrate the brave efforts of dissidents and activists around the world in their fight to be free. Joined by leading voices of liberty, President Bush will deliver major remarks on the fight...

Myanmar's government invited pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to a meeting Friday with the new president, an official said, in the clearest step toward a political dialogue since she was released from house arrest in November.

Former President Jimmy Carter and former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari were hoping to visit the State Department this week to brief officials on their recent trip to North Korea, but nobody at the State Department was available to meet with them. Carter and Ahtisaari, both Nobel Peace Prize laureates, had been eager to give their readout of their meetings in North Korea April 26 and 27 to U.S. officials and press their case for a resumption of food aid to the Hermit Kingdom. The two are members of the Elders, a group of senior figures who have been informally engaging...

After 15 years of house arrest, the liberation of Aung San Suu Kyi, the 65-year-old pro-democracy leader of Burma, was celebrated around the world last Saturday. Her steadfast promotion of freedom and liberty against the forces of repression is admirable. World leaders were not the only ones in jubilance. There are reports that foot soldiers among the Burmese military’s lower ranks, view Suu Kyi as a gateway to changing the oppressive nation for the better.According to the BBC News service in Burma, several hundred disgruntled soldiers from battalions in Rangoon and Bago divisions, along with their families went to see...

The military authorities in Burma have released the pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. She has appeared in front of a crowd of her supporters who rushed to her house in Rangoon when nearby barricades were removed by the security forces.

Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been sentenced to an additional 18 months house arrest by a court in Rangoon. Ms Suu Kyi, a Nobel peace laureate, was convicted of violating state security laws by allowing a US national into her lakeside home after he swam there. She was jailed for three years with hard labour, but this was commuted to house arrest, an official said. American John Yettaw was jailed for seven years, four with hard labour.

Today [June 19th] marks the 64th birthday of 1991 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi. Burma's leading freedom-fighter celebrates it inside notorious Insein Prison, near Rangoon. Here's another House Of Cards dictatorship the sissified, self-hating Western states don't lift a finger to topple. America, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and even Israel are all pretty much feckless, impotent, "paper tigers" by now. Tigers waiting for some crippled, retarded, diseased Communist or Muslim mouse to slaughter them.

US President Barack Obama has called for the "immediate and unconditional" release of Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. In a written statement, Mr Obama said he strongly condemned Ms Suu Kyi's house arrest, which has lasted for most of the last 19 years. She is being tried for violating the terms of her detention in a case which has drawn widespread condemnation. The Nobel laureate faces up to five years in jail, if convicted. "Aung San Suu Kyi's continued detention, isolation, and show trial based on spurious charges cast serious doubt on the Burmese regime's willingness to be...

Pro-Democracy Leader Aung San Suu Kyi Rallies Set Worldwide October 24, 2007 Einnor Mendoza - AHN News Writer Yangon, Burma (AHN) - A massive rally worldwide will be launched with Burma's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi as its centerpiece and other political prisoners in the country. Rallies will be held in 12 cities worldwide to protest the Burma's military junta's house 12-year detention of Suu Kyi. Demonstrations will be set up in Chinese embassies, following reports that Beijing would play a key role in freeing Suu Kyi, BBC News reported. The pro-Suu Kyi rallies will be conducted in...

Demonstrations are planned in 12 cities worldwide against Burma's continuing detention of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners. Protests will be staged at Chinese embassies, as campaigners say Beijing holds the key to Ms Suu Kyi's release. The Nobel Peace Prize winner has been held by the junta, mostly under house arrest, for exactly 12 years. Australia is the latest country to impose sanctions on Burma's generals, amid global condemnation of their rule. Australian officials said the financial sanctions would target 418 individuals, including top military figures and cabinet ministers. Pressure has been growing on the...

Myanmar protesters hit 100,000 mark As many as 100,000 anti-government protesters led by a phalanx of Buddhist monks marched Monday through Yangon, the largest crowd to demonstrate in Myanmar's biggest city since a 1988 pro-democracy uprising that was brutally crushed by the military. From the front of the march, witnesses could see a one-mile stretch of eight-lane road was filled with people. Some participants said there were several hundred thousand marchers in their ranks, but an international aid agency official with employees monitoring the crowd estimated said the size was well over 50,000 and approaching 100,000. It was the latest...

Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has greeted Buddhist monks protesting against the military junta. Apparently unable to hold her tears, Aung San Suu Kyi came out of the house she has been detained in since 2003 as the monks were let through a roadblock. At least 2,000 monks are staging a sixth day of protests through the streets of the main city of Rangoon. Up to 10,000 marched through Mandalay with protests also taking place in five townships across Burma. (snip) The area around University Avenue where Ms Suu Kyi's house is located has been closed to traffic...

10,000 protest against Myanmar gov't Myanmar police allowed a group of more than 500 Buddhist monks to march Saturday past the house where opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is detained, witnesses said, on a day that saw some of the largest protests since 1988. A monk said in a speech later to anti-government protesters that Suu Kyi came to her gate to greet them. His account could not immediately be confirmed. Suu Kyi has been under detention continuously since May 2003 at her Yangon home, and for 11 of the past 18 years. The monks stopped briefly in front...

Many people in Burma have been surprised by the sheer persistence of the protests in recent weeks. In a country where the authorities show zero tolerance of even the slightest criticism, such public displays of defiance have not been seen for almost 20 years. These protests stem from a decision by the military government to suddenly raise the price of fuel by up to five times on 15 August. Transport fares rose and that triggered a sharp rise in the price of consumer goods, hitting poor people particularly hard. The generals must have hoped that the momentum of the demonstrations...

he US has expressed deep concern about reports that Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been taken to hospital. A state department spokesman said he could not confirm the reports but urged Burma's military rulers to assure she had any necessary medical assistance. Ms Suu Kyi has been held since May 2003, and has spent 10 of the last 16 years under house arrest.

Myanmar Leader Suu Kyi Calls House Arrest Extension Illegal May 27, 2006 YANGON, Myanmar — The political party of Myanmar's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said the extension of her house arrest Saturday is unlawful and would hurt efforts at national reconciliation. The statement from the National League from Democracy was its first public acknowledgment that the ruling junta had renewed an order confining Suu Kyi to her home. The government has still not made any official announcement of its action. The statement said the party had "learnt with regret that authorities have continued to hold ... Aung...