Burma: Backing for Aung San Suu Kyi from freed prisoners

BURMA: Former political prisoners yesterday voiced support for pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, pictured, a week after their mass release, but said they would not contest April by-elections for seats in parliament.

The 88 Generation Students Group, which led a 1988 uprising that was brutally suppressed by the then military regime, said it would soon form a political party but would adopt a wait-and-see approach to reforms being initiated by the nominally civilian government that came to power last year. The group is regarded as Burma’s most popular opposition force after Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which will contest the elections.