AFP: Myanmar's Suu Kyi wants to use Twitter after release

Myanmar's Suu Kyi wants to use Twitter after release

(AFP) – Oct 18, 2010

YANGON — Myanmar's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi wants to start using Twitter when she is released from house arrest to communicate with people around the world, her lawyer said on Monday.

Suu Kyi, whose current term of house arrest is due to end next month, has been locked up in her lakeside home with no Internet access since 2003, long before the popular micro-blogging website was launched.

"Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has said to me that she wants to have a Twitter account to speak and discuss with the world's teenagers," her attorney Nyan Win said after visiting the Nobel Peace Prize winner. "Daw" is a term of respect in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

"She said she wanted to talk with youths as she wanted to know their opinions regarding political, economic and social issues. She said she can be in touch with them every day if she has this account."

Suu Kyi is due to be released on November 13, just days after the military-ruled country holds its first election in 20 years, although some fear the generals may find an excuse to keep her locked up.

The pro-democracy icon's party won the last election in 1990 but was never allowed to take power, and several periods of confinement mean she has spent most of the past two decades in detention.

Myanmar's Supreme Court held a hearing Monday on Suu Kyi's latest appeal against her house arrest, but did not announce a decision on whether they would agree to consider the application.

"We have to wait about two weeks for the judgement," said Nyan Win. "We are satisfied with our arguments. We're hoping they will accept the case."

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party has been dissolved by the authorities because it chose to boycott the November 7 vote, saying the rules were unfair.

Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962 and critics say the poll is a charade aimed at putting a veneer of legitimacy over the junta's rule.

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