Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi has been released from almost two years of house arrest in Myanmar. The military junta that rules the country has made an important concession to international opinion by deciding to release the democracy activist, but the government's commitment to genuine reform remains unclear. The world should applaud the move, but pressure to honor the results of the 1990 election, won by Ms. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, or NLD, but rejected by the military, must continue.
Myanmar, which when known as Burma was Southeast Asia's richest country, has had an unhappy history. Gen. Ne Win seized power in 1962 and proceeded to bankrupt the country in his efforts to implement his own brand of socialism. He was overthrown by other generals in 1988. Confident that they enjoyed popular support, those officers held an election in 1990 which, to their shock, they lost to the NLD. They refused to accept the results, imprisoned Ms. Suu Kyi and other NLD supporters and have ruled the country ever since. The result has been corruption, a continuing slide in the national economy and international isolation.
The junta has tried to marginalize Ms. Suu Kyi, but her popularity -- aided by her winning the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize -- has only increased both at home and abroad. As international pressure mounted, the government tried in 1995 to score points by releasing her from house arrest, but her stubborn commitment to the cause of democracy in Myanmar forced the junta to clamp down again in September 2000. She was again placed under house arrest and her phone line was cut.