World Leaders Call for Release of Burmese Political Prisoners

Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi displays a placard that reads, "I also love the people," to her supporters at the headquarters of her National League for Democracy Party in Yangon, Burma, 14 November 2010

World leaders are praising the release of Nobel Peace prize winner and democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest in Burma, but also are calling for freedom for political prisoners held there and elsewhere.

Burma's military government freed the 65 year old Nobel Peace Prize winner from house arrest Saturday evening after keeping her locked up for seven consecutive years.

The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet, lauded Aung San Suu Kyi's release by Burma's military rulers and expressed hope that the Chinese government would release fellow Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo and other prisoners of conscience.

The Dalai Lama, like Aung San Suu Kyi, is a Nobel winner. He fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against China, which considers him a separatist.

Amnesty International said her release should not take attention away from Burma's 2,200 other political prisoners, who it said are being held in "deplorable conditions."

U.S. President Barack Obama, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso all reacted by calling for the release of all of Burma's political prisoners.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Tibetnet