October 5, 2003	Sunday	Sha’aban 8, 1424

NUSA DUA (Indonesia), Oct 4: Detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is in good condition after surgery and will be freed “eventually”, Myanmar’s Foreign Minister Win Aung said on Saturday.

“Her condition is very, very good,” he told reporters on arrival at the airport on the Indonesian island of Bali for a regional summit next week.

“We do not call it house arrest or anything like that. She is now at home recuperating.”

Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest after leaving hospital following a surgery.

Asked when she would be given full freedom, Win Aung replied: “Eventually, of course.”

Questioned whether she would be freed before the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit next week, he replied: “The ASEAN summit is on Monday, it is too close.”

The pro-democracy leader and several members of her National League for Democracy were detained at an undisclosed location after a violent clash between her supporters and pro-junta demonstrators on May 30.

She was admitted to hospital on Sept 17 for surgery and was last week transferred to house arrest for the third time since the late 1980s.

Fellow ASEAN members who fear the Myanmar issue will hijack the summit have urged the military-ruled state to free her before the meeting. Myanmar says the transfer to house arrest is a positive step.

The Philippines called on Myanmar on Saturday to release the opposition leader immediately and accused the junta of not being serious about political reform.

Foreign Secretary (minister) Blas Ople said he expected Southeast Asian foreign ministers to call for a strong statement on the issue at the summit.

“We (ASEAN) do see a lack of resolution on the part of the governing junta to expedite the formation of domestic political institutions and the normalization of Myanmar’s political life,” Ople told reporters. Foreign ministers will meet on Sunday before the summit.

Asked whether Myanmar’s recently-announced “roadmap” to democratization is a pragmatic approach, he said: “It is not the first time we heard of a roadmap in Myanmar.”

Ople said the ministers’ recommendation “will be towards a strong declaration about the situation in Myanmar”.—AFP