Yangon (AsiaNews) – Only Senior General Than Shwe, Myanmar’s military strongman, will decide “if and when” Aung San Suu Kyi is freed; only he “knows exactly when she will be granted freedom,” wrote The Irrawaddy, a dissident Burmese newspaper, citing two Burmese government officials. A close aid of the Nobel Prize winner says that Myanmar’s main opposition leader plans to tour the country once she is released to rally support for democracy.

Aung San Suu Kyi spent 15 of the past 21 years in prison or under house arrest. Her latest sentence, due to an American man who broke into her home in August 2009, will end on 13 November, a few days after the country’s general elections on 7 November. The incident was a pretext to exclude her from taking part in the elections, and give the military regime a large majority in the new parliament. For opponents, analysts and western governments, the election process is in fact just a farce.

The release of the Nobel prize laureate is an olive branch the regime is extending to the international community, but its implementation remains a national security issue and the decision falls on Senior General Than Shwe.

“We can assume that she will be released on 13 November,” said one of two government officials who spoke about the matter to The Irrawaddy on condition of anonymity, “but we cannot say with certainty that it will happen. Only the junta chief will know if or when the release can happen”.

In so, “She will go around the country and reach out to the people even if she may face another Depayin,” said Win Tin, one of the leaders of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), which was disbanded for failing to register as a political party for the November election.

By Depayin, Win Tin was referring to the junta-orchestrated deadly ambush against Suu Kyi and her convoy in a location called Depayin, Sagaing Division, in the evening of 30 May 2003, when she was making a political tour of the area. Suu Kyi narrowly escaped with her life but at least 100 of her supporters died in the attack.

“The political awakening will be high again in the public once “Daw” Suu is released,” Win Tin explained. “Even while under house arrest, she has posted letters outside her compound and given us political messages.” In Burmese, “Daw” means aunt or lady and it is an honorific title for mature women or women in a senior position.

Win expects the regime to impose restrictions on Suu Kyi's movements when she is released; however, her party is already consolidating and preparing itself so it can carry out mass-based activities under Suu Kyi's leadership in the post-election period.

Myanmar, the country formerly known as Burma, has been run by a military dictatorship since 1962.  In 1990, the military allowed free elections. When they were won by the National League for Democracy (with more than 75 per cent of the vote), the regime refused to accept the outcome.

Currently, more than 2,100 are held as political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, who is the daughter of Aung San, the national hero who led the country to independence.