Aung San Suu Kyi's deputy urged Myanmar's ruling junta Sunday to engage the opposition in dialogue before elections this year, as he took his first steps outside as a free man in seven years.
Tin Oo, 83, vice-chairman of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, made the appeal as he prayed at Yangon's famed Shwe Dagon pagoda following his release from house arrest late Saturday.
"Because I am a Buddhist I came here to wish for peace for all Myanmar people," he told Agence France-Presse as he toured the huge golden monument, accompanied by his wife and a dozen party officials who held umbrellas to protect him from the sun.
The veteran activist said however that his own release means nothing if Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi, 64, and around 2,100 other political prisoners are still detained when the elections take place.
Tin Oo held since 2003, was a former army general and defence minister who was forced into retirement in the 1970s after falling foul of the country's military rulers.
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