In an extraordinary and unheralded policy reversal, a deputy chief of military intelligence drove to Ms Suu Kyi's residence on University Avenue in Rangoon yesterday afternoon to inform her the ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) was reinstating her freedom without pre-conditions.
A small crowd of about 200 spectators joined foreign television crews last night at the gates of the house in the hope of seeing her.
But Ms Suu Kyi, who is due to hold her first press conference this afternoon, had already embarked on consultations with two other leaders of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party she steered to victory in 1990 elections held after her detention.
Ms Suu Kyi's husband, the British academic Dr Michael Aris, said he was "very hopeful" about his wife's release. Speaking in Oxford he said, "We are simply waiting to hear it from her own lips."
