Aung San Suu Kyi is finally freed from house arrest

At approximately 11.0 am today UK time, the Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was finally released from house arrest in Rangoon. She came outside (above) and briefly addressed the crowd who had surged down the road to her house after police removed the barricades.

"There is a time to be quiet and a time to talk," were her first words. "People must work in unison. Only then can we achieve our goal."

There had been mounting speculation in recent days that the ruling junta had run out of reasons - and excuses - for keeping the world's most famous political prisoner under house arrest.

Observers believe the generals made the decision in a bid to bring some sort of international legitimacy to last Sunday's general election which was clearly skewed to allow the pro-regime USDP an easy win. As a result, the party has a massive majority in both houses of parliament.

Among Aung San Suu Kyi's international friends and admirers who have been on tenterhooks the past few days are former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton - not to mention the Vietnam veteran, John Yettaw, who was the cause of her latest period of house arrest.

Having had a dream that she was in trouble, Yettaw swam across Lake Inya and entered her home. The result was 18 months' extra house arrest for San Suu Kyi (pronounced Sansooshi) and seven years' hard labour for him.

To be fair to Yettaw, most observers agree that if it hadn't been for his extraordinary intervention, the generals would have found some other excuse to keep her under arrest.

Quite what role the Nobel peace prize-winner will now be able to play in Burmese politics, after spending 15 of the past 21 years in detention, remains to be seen.

Observers feel it is highly unlikely she would have agreed to any conditions being attached to her release. ·