Aung San Suu Kyi hails ‘new era’ for Myanmar

YANGON, Myanmar

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi (C) waves to the crowd as she leaves National League for Democracy headquarters, after addressing supporters in Yangon. The former junta had kept her imprisoned in her lakeside home for two decades. AFP photo

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi claimed victory yesterday in Myanmar’s historic by-election, saying she hoped it would mark the beginning of a new era for the long-repressed country.

Suu Kyi’s supporters celebrated into the night after her National League for Democracy Party (NLD) declared victory in the April 1 election. “This is not so much our triumph as a triumph for people who have decided that they must be involved in the political process in this country,” Suu Kyi said in a victory speech at her party headquarters in Yangon. “We hope this will be the beginning of a new era,” said the activist, who was locked up by the former junta for most of the past 22 years.

The charismatic Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who led the struggle against military rule in the former Burma for two decades, was one of 44 candidates NLD said won all but one of the legislative seats being contested.

The by-elections followed a year of astonishing change for a country that was in the grip of military rule for decades: The government has freed hundreds of political prisoners, held talks with ethnic minority rebels, relaxed censorship, allowed trade unions, and shows signs of pulling back from the economic and political orbit of neighbor China.

Praise from US, EU and ASEAN

The former junta had kept Suu Kyi imprisoned in her lakeside home for the better part of two decades. When she was finally released in late 2010, just after a general election that was deemed by most neither free nor fair, few could have imagined she would so quickly make the leap from democracy advocate to elected official, opening the way for a potential presidential run in 2015.

But Myanmar has changed dramatically in that time. The junta finally ceded power last year, and although many of its leaders merely swapped their military uniforms for civilian suits, they went on to stun even their staunchest critics by releasing political prisoners, signing cease-fires with rebels, relaxing press censorship and opening a direct dialogue with Suu Kyi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 while under house arrest.

Unlike in the 2010 general elections, the government allowed foreign observers and journalists to witness the polling, which was held to replace MPs who gave up their seats to join the government.

The United States and European Union had hinted they could lift some sanctions -- imposed over the past two decades in response to human rights abuses -- if the election was free and fair. U.S.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton congratulated Myanmar for holding the poll. Speaking at a news conference in Istanbul, she said Washington is committed to supporting the country’s reform effort.

Malgorzata Wasilewska, an E.U. election observer, hailed “very encouraging” signs at the roughly dozen polling stations her team visited. Asian foreign ministers also welcomed Myanmar’s “orderly” elections.

Compiled from AP, AFP, and Reuters stories by the Daily News staff.