Myanmar junta allows Suu Kyi's party to reopen HQ
No word on the leader's release
Reuters, Yangon
Military-ruled Myanmar has allowed Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy to reopen its headquarters nearly a year after it was closed in a crackdown against the opposition, a party official said yesterday. Other party offices across the country remained shut and there was no word on democracy icon Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest at her Yangon home. "Officials informed us that we can re-open our headquarters effective this morning," Than Tun, a member of the NLD's executive committee told Reuters. The move, which came after two senior party officials were freed from house arrest on Tuesday, has intensified speculation that Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi may be released soon. She and vice chairman Tin Oo are the last senior party leaders still confined since a May 30 clash between NLD followers and government backers, which critics blamed on the junta. Yangon denied orchestrating the violence, but it has come under fierce international pressure to end the crackdown, release hundreds of political prisoners and move toward democracy. "I do believe she will be set free very soon," one NLD member said outside Than Tun's home where the party's executive committee met hours after the junta removed a lock and chain from the shabby NLD office near Yangon's historic Shwedagon Pagoda. In Bangkok, exiled dissidents were more skeptical, noting that only about 70 of 300 NLD offices were allowed to reopen the last time Suu Kyi was freed from house arrest in 2002.
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