Tin Oo, left, prepares to pour water on a Buddha image during his visit to the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar, on Sunday, a day after he was released from nearly seven years in detention.Myanmar dissidents welcomed a government decision to free one of the country's most prominent opposition leaders after nearly seven years under arrest.
But a more difficult challenge for the opposition lies ahead: Rebuilding what remains of their movement after more than a decade of persecution by the country's military regime.
Myanmar officials on Saturday released Tin Oo, a leading dissident who helped found the country's National League for Democracy opposition party along with Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in 1988. The NLD and Ms. Suu Kyi won Myanmar's last national elections two years later, but the government ignored the results and eventually imprisoned many senior NLD leaders, including Ms. Suu Kyi and Tin Oo, the NLD vice chairman.
More recently, Myanmar's government has tried to appear more conciliatory towards the party, including allowing Ms. Suu Kyi to meet with other party leaders in advance of a new national election planned for later this year. Analysts generally believe the military—which rarely speaks publicly about its motives—wants to hold the vote to enhance its legitimacy and needs some measure of opposition to lend credibility to the process.
Still, the government has stopped short of freeing Ms. Suu Kyi, a step leaders in the U.S. and elsewhere say is a necessary precondition to holding a free and fair election. Some dissidents said that while they are happy Mr. Tin Oo is free, they suspect military officials released him only because he may be too old at age 82 to stir up serious trouble.
Others noted the release comes just days ahead of a visit by a United Nations special envoy on Monday to review the progress on human rights in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
"It is expected that the junta will launch such a charm offensive to improve its image before the elections," said Soe Aung, a spokesman for the Forum for Democracy in Burma, a Thailand-based dissident group, in an email response to questions. Still, "the junta will make sure at all cost that the opposition will be weakened if not paralyzed before the elections," he said.
Attempts to reach the Myanmar government, which rarely talks to foreign journalists, were unsuccessful. Than Shwe, the country's reclusive senior military leader, has in the past said the election—whose date hasn't been announced—will be "free and fair."
The task of rebuilding the opposition remains a pressing issue for Myanmar, a resource-rich country whose troubles have long unnerved neighbors in the region. Despite widespread concerns about the legitimacy of this year's vote, some analysts are hopeful it will at least open the door to more open political discourse, especially if more political prisoners like Mr. Tin Oo are released in the months ahead.
In power since the 1960s, Myanmar's military is accused of an array of human-rights violations. U.S. officials say they're particularly worried about recent indications Myanmar is expanding its ties with North Korea, including unverified reports it may be pursuing a program of nuclear proliferation with that country's help.
The junta cracked down hard on the opposition over the past decade, dismantling its network of regional offices across the country and subjecting leaders who aren't in prison to constant surveillance, according to human rights groups. It also imprisoned an estimated 2,100 political dissidents and prohibited the NLD from holding major summits, rights groups say, though it allowed the group to keep a headquarters in Yangon. Many senior opposition figures no longer live in Myanmar, and top officials who are still involved are for the most part in their 70s and 80s.
The party has looked to regroup over the past year. It has expanded its central leadership committee to bring in new blood and has reportedly begun organizing overseas Myanmar citizens to possibly take part in the 2010 vote.
But party members are still deeply divided over how far they should go to participate in the election. Some believe nothing short of a full boycott is acceptable unless the junta frees Ms. Suu Kyi and takes other steps such as revising the country's constitution, which reserves many government posts and 25% of parliamentary seats for military officers.
Younger members—including some in their 40s and 50s—are more willing to participate, according to dissidents. These members are said to believe that even if the vote is rigged, they could at least gain some positions of influence, and that sitting out would only marginalize the group further.
Mr. Tin Oo, for his part, told followers over the weekend that he planned to resume his political activities as deputy leader of the NLD despite warnings to desist, Reuters reported, though details of his plans remained scant. Pleased that he at least was being set free, well-wishers gathered near the Yangon residence where he was under house arrest. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he hoped the leader's release would promote "substantive dialogue" between the regime and NLD leaders.
A former army general who later fell out with senior military leaders, Mr. Tin Oo spent numerous years in prison in past decades. Authorities last detained him —along with Ms. Suu Kyi – in 2003 after a pro-government mob attacked their convoy during a tour of northern Myanmar in which several people were killed. Government officials argued the two represented a threat to national security.
The regime has extended Mr. Tin Oo's detention annually since then. His latest term of detention expired on Saturday.
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