Will Myanmar (also known as Burma) be banned from the summit meeting of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations next week? That's not likely, but Myanmar's new prime minister, Gen. Khin Nyunt, could utterly lose face unless the regime frees prodemocracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi before the summit convenes.
Suu Kyi has been detained by the regime since state-assisted thugs viciously attacked her political entourage on May 30. For most of the period since then, only U.N. representative Razali Ismail and an officer of the International Commission of the Red Cross have been permitted to see her, while the world wondered about her whereabouts.
Recently she underwent a successful operation in a Yangon private hospital, and was allowed to go home following her discharge on Sept. 26. But she remains under house arrest.