Aung San Suu Kyi Freed From House Arrest

Following Myanmar’s elections earlier this month that forbade Aung San Suu Kyi from running, the country’s military junta has just released her from house arrest.

Although the period of house arrest has just expired, in the past the military has been proficient at finding reasons for extensions and/or new detentions that have kept one of the world’s most prominent political prisoners in her home’s compound in Yangon for the majority of the past two decades.

But her detention has not silenced her, nor has it changed her resolve to bring democracy to her country. In fact it may have strengthened it – she says she became a “totally political animal” because it was her whole existence.

“I hope that what I do for this country is not based simply on moral authority,” she says. “I’d like to think that I’m part of a movement. I’m not going to be able to do it alone. One person alone can’t do anything as important as bringing genuine democracy to a country.”