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Burma Frees Opposition's Deputy Chairman

   VOA News 13 February 2010
   Tin  Oo,  deputy  leader  of  the National League for Democracy (NLD),
   talks  to  journalists  at  his  residence following the expiry of his
   detention in Rangoon, Burma, 13 Feb 2010

Photo: AFP

   Tin  Oo,  deputy  leader  of  the National League for Democracy (NLD),
   talks  to  journalists  at  his  residence following the expiry of his
   detention in Rangoon, Burma, 13 Feb 2010

   Burmese  authorities  have  freed the deputy chairman of the country's
   main opposition party - the National League for Democracy.
   Eighty-two-year-old  Tin  Oo was released Saturday, after nearly seven
   years in detention.
   Tin  Oo  told  VOA  Burmese  Service  Saturday that his party will not
   participate in this year's election unless its conditions are met.  He
   said  one  of the conditions is the release of the party's top leader,
   Aung  San  Suu  Kyi,  so  she can participate in the election.  She is
   under house arrest which expires November.

   The military government has announced general elections for this year,
   without naming the date.
   The  United  Nations'  top  human  rights  envoy for Burma, Tomas Ojea
   Quintana, starts a five-day visit to the country Monday.
   He  is  expected  to  urge  the  military  government  to  permit  the
   opposition and ethnic parties to participate in the elections.
   Tin  Oo  was arrested together with Aung San Suu Kyi in May of 2003 on
   charges of disturbing public order, after their convoy was attacked in
   a northern village of Depayin by a government-sponsored mob.  Aung San
   Suu  Kyi  has spent 14 of the past 20 years in some form of detention.
   Her latest house arrest term expires in November.
   The  National  League  for  Democracy swept Burma's last parliamentary
   elections  in 1990, but the country's military rulers never recognized
   the results.  The military has ruled the country since 1962.
   Tin  Oo said the Voice of America radio in Burmese was his main source
   of news information while in detention.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP.

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