Monsters and Critics - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in good health

Monsters and Critics - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in good health
Asia-Pacific News
Jan 1, 2009, 9:57 GMT

Yangon - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed a New Year's Day visit Thursday by her personal doctor and she was in good health, officials said.

Doctor Tin Myo Win visited Suu Kyi at her lakeside home - where the Nobel laureate has been kept under detention in near complete isolation since mid-2003 - briefly on Thursday afternoon, a government official confirmed.

'This visit is just a regular visit for January. Her health is good,' said an official who was briefed by Tin Myo Win just before the meeting.

The doctor is one of few people allowed to visit Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar independence hero Aung San, who has spent about 13 of the past 18 years under house arrest with the latest incarceration beginning in May, 2003.

Suu Kyi is allowed a visit by her doctor once a month, but has been denied visits by members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which she leads but cannot communicate with.

It has been widely speculated that Myanmar's ruling junta will keep Suu Kyi under house arrest until after the general election scheduled for 2010.

The NLD won the 1990 general election by a landslide, with many voting for the party to protest Suu Kyi's arrest and detention in 1989 for publicly criticizing former military strongman Ne Win.

Although the NLD won at the polls, the military denied the party power, claiming a new constitution needed to be drafted before civilian rule could take place in Myanmar.
Myanmar, also called Burma, has been under military rule since 1962.