Barricades removed around Suu Kyi's residence in Yangon

Oct 26, 2008, 13:16 GMT

Yangon - The military junta in Myanmar has removed barricades from the house of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in the city of Yangon, witnesses reported Sunday.

The 63-year-old Nobel peace laureate has spent 13 of the past 19 years under house arrest.

Police started clearing the street outside the house for normal traffic between the hours of 6 am and 6 pm, the witnesses said.

There was no explanation for the move, and there was no indication of a rapprochement between the regime and the opposition.

In Mandalay, six opposition politicians were recently sentenced to between two and 13 years in prison for disturbance of the peace and incitement of the population, a group of Burmese exiles reported in Thailand on Saturday.

The six, who are members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, were arrested one year ago after the junta savagely put down a revolt by Myanmar's Buddhist monks.

Suu Kyi won elections in Myanmar in 1990, but the military regime did not recognize the outcome.

Her current period of house arrest began in 2003. She is rarely allowed to leave her residence, and then only with an escort to meet UN representatives or members of the regime.

She is not expected to be released from house arrest any time soon.

University Avenue Road, on which Suu Kyi's family compound is located, was largely sealed off before Sunday's move and was only open to residents.

The German embassy residence was recently relocated to the same road.