Dharamshala: World leaders including six Nobel Peace laureates have welcomed the release of the Burmese pro-democracy campaigner, Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, on Saturday (13th November) in Japan. The release also leaves China as the only country or only communist regime in the world with a Nobel winner currently in prison. Mr. Liu Xiaobo, was awarded the prize in this year, almost a year since being given an eleven-year prison sentence for "inciting subversion" after he co-authored Charter 08, a petition for political reform in China and Tibet.
The six Nobel Peace laureates were meeting in Japanese city, Hiroshima for an annual summit. "The past is the past, now we must look forward," said the Tibet's political and spiritual leader His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. "We must utilize dialogue, with the spirit of reconciliation. That is the only way to solve problems. Using force is outdated." The six laureates had prepared a formal statement to put more pressure on China, but decided not to release it after Japanese officials in Hiroshima asked them not to further inflame tensions between China and Japan.
"One of our Nobel Peace colleagues is imprisoned. We cannot be silent in the face of pressure from the Chinese government. Liu Xiaobo is not forgotten, we will work as diligently for his release as we have for that of our sister Aung San Suu Kyi,"said Jody Williams, the winner of the 1997 prize for her work to ban landmines..
The Burmese Nobel peace laureate - who late on Saturday (13th November) afternoon appeared at the gates of the lakeside mansion that has been her prison for the past seven years - told a boisterous crowd of supporters gathered at her National League for Democracy (NLD) offices in Rangoon that she bore her captors no "antagonism".
She also reached out to an opposition splintered by last Sunday's "sham" election that was won by pro-junta parties and said that all democratic forces must work together to rebuild freedom of speech and human rights in Burma.
Suu Kyi, the 65-year-old's remarks were measured, taking care not to antagonize the junta, although government officials and her lawyer Nyan Win said no conditions were placed on her release.
Meanwhile, the head of the Nobel committee, Thorbjoern Jagland, invited Ms Suu Kyi to Oslo to collect the Peace prize she was awarded in 1991 but has never been able to collect. It remains unclear who will collect Mr Liu's prize for him this year. The Chinese authorities have reacted with fury to his award, placing his wife under house arrest and restricting the movements of scores of his supporters.
