Burma/Myanmar Latest Video and Reports: The Freeing of Aung San Suu Kyi and Today's Speech

UPDATE 1645 GMT: The BBC has posted an audio interview with Aung San Suu Kyi. The opening exchange:

Q: What were you thinking as you walked out (of your house) yesterday?

A: I was wondering how I could make myself heard above the noise.

No doubt about the most dramatic event on Saturday: after seven years of house arrest, political activist Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed to come out and greet thousands of enthusiastic supporters. Phoebe Kennedy of The Independent of London watched:

The barrier breached, they surged forward, past the sign saying "Restricted Area", speeding to a trot, the joy of the moment manifested in little leaps, air punches and laughter. Two hundred yards down University Avenue, on the right, was her house, a tatty fence, grey metal gate, the red sign of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party, a portrait of her heroic father, General Aung San.

They thronged around her gate, hundreds of them, holding aloft their portraits of their leader, some with little playing card-sized pictures they may have kept hidden in their pockets for years. "Long Live Aung San Suu Kyi!" they chanted. Then suddenly there she was. The crowd leapt to its feet as if a cup-winning goal had been scored. "May Suu, May Suu!" "Mother Suu!" they roared, affection overwhelming their usual reverence.

This morning Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy, won Burma's last democratic elections in 1990, addressed a crowd of more than 10,000 outside the NLD offices in Rangoon. She declared, "We must work together. We Burmese tend to believe in fate, but if we want change we have to do it ourselves."

The activist pledged to work towards national reconciliation and said she had no ill-feelings towards those who detained her: "They treated me well. I only wish they treated the people in the same way."

Now the joy turns to attention to what comes next. A senior member of the NLD, Ohn Kyaing, offered the general statement that Suu Kyi wants to "know the genuine desire of the people, to hear the voice of the people in adopting future plans. So we need to get in touch with the people." 

The immediate challenged is that more than 2,200 political prisoners are still detained. Last month's parliamentary elections were carefully arranged with many seats "reserved" for the military and the two leading parties, claiming the vast majority of the seats, acting as proxies for the junta. (The cynical might suggest that it was the "success" of the staged election that gave the military the confidence to lift Suu Kyi's house arrest.)

And, of course, the NLD leader could be arrested again, as she has been on three other occasions, spending 15 of the last 21 years in detention.

Still this morning, Suu Kyi gave the ringing declaration, "There is no reason to lose heart."