The military regime – which has kept the pro-democracy leader and Nobel laureate locked up for the past seven years, and for 15 of the last 21 – signed an order this afternoon authorising her release from her latest period of detention.
Aung San Suu Kyi is understood to be demanding an unconditional release, but the regime is attempting to restrict her ability to travel around the country and limit her freedom to meet supporters.
At dusk in Rangoon, U Win Tin, the co-founder of her now-banned National League for Democracy (NLD) party, appeared at the military roadblock outside the gates of her house, where hundreds of supporters had gathered.
He said Aung San Suu Kyi had been told she "could go this day", but that it was likely it would be one more night before she emerged in public because of an impasse in negotiations.
The NLD supporters assembled amid a series of reports and rumours that the 65-year-old's release was imminent and would happen today, a day before the official end of the term of her current house arrest.
Aung San Suu Kyi's lawyer, U Nyan Win, has previously said she will not accept conditions such as not being allowed to travel freely around Burma.
The NLD won a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but the junta ignored the result and repeatedly sentenced her to periods of detention at her home in Rangoon.
Her latest period of house arrest was extended for 18 months after a US tourist swam unannounced across a lake to the rear of her property on what he said was a mission to "save" her.
Burma's first elections since 1990 took place on Sunday, but were widely dismissed by outside observers as a sham.
Results published yesterday showed that the main military-backed party, the Union Solidarity and Development party, had won 190 of 219 seats so far declared in the lower house and 95 of 107 seats in the upper chamber.
The NLD refused to take part in the poll and was ordered to disband by the government. - Guardian
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