Print

Mail

wiki links

Suu Kyi doing well after surgery, says her personal doctor

Myanmar opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi, detained at a secret location by the military government for more than three months, underwent successful "major" surgery in Yangon yesterday, her personal doctor said.

"The situation is 100 percent OK," Tin Myo Win told reporters at the private Asia Royal Hospital after the three-hour operation.

"It was a major operation. She has regained consciousness and she can talk," he said. He declined to say what the operation was for, citing medical ethics, or how long Suu Kyi was expected to remain in hospital.

American, British and Italian diplomats arrived at the hospital with flowers for Suu Kyi, 58, who was also reported to have undergone an operation on her uterus on Thursday.

Word spread that she was in hospital and anxious followers camped inside the heavily-guarded hospital, where the floor on which she was staying and that housing the operating theaters were sealed off by plainclothes police.

"It's a great relief to hear that the operation was a success," one old woman said as she waited with about 20 other supporters for news on the revered Nobel laureate.

A leading Asian rights body urged the international community to pile pressure on Myanmar's ruling generals to release Suu Kyi after three months in detention.

"The fact that she is now in hospital highlights the need for more international pressure for her immediate release," Sunai Pasuk, a leader of the rights group Asia Forum, said in Bangkok.

The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner has been held at a secret location since a bloody May 30 clash between her followers and government supporters in northern Myanmar.

Her last contact with the outside world was two weeks ago when the Red Cross found her in good health and eating after the US said she was a hunger strike.

Yangon says Suu Kyi is being held for her own protection and refuses to free her despite international outrage and tougher sanctions imposed by the US and EU.

NLD officials and diplomats speculated the military may seek to deflect international pressure by allowing Suu Kyi to convalesce at her Yangon home under house arrest, as she has been for more than half the last 14 years.

"This has created an opportunity for the government because it has not wanted to appear to make the decision under pressure," a Yangon-based Asian diplomat said.

Sunai disagreed, saying Suu Kyi would probably be returned to the military compound where she is believed to have spent much of her latest detention.

"By moving her to the house she would have access to the outside world and the government is not ready for that yet," Sunai said.

Special envoys from the UN and Indonesia are awaiting permission to visit Myanmar to check on Suu Kyi's condition and press for her release.
This story has been viewed 1654 times.