Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi is on the verge of being freed from house arrest, officials in the military-ruled country said yesterday, as hundreds of her supporters gathered in anticipation. Security was stepped up in Yangon, where Suu Kyi remained confined to her crumbling lakeside mansion, with police vehicles patrolling the city. The Nobel Peace Prize winner, locked up for most of the past two decades, is still seen as the biggest threat to the junta, but her freedom appears to be a price it is willing to pay to deflect criticism of recent elections. "The authorities will release her. It is certain," a government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Lawyers for the 65-year-old dissident say her current term of house arrest started with her imprisonment on May 14 last year and so is due to end today. Suu Kyi's detention was extended by 18 months last year over a bizarre incident in which an American swam uninvited to her lakeside home, keeping her off the scene for the first election in 20 years. About 600 supporters and onlookers gathered at her National League for Democracy (NLD) party's headquarters yesterday, some wearing T-shirts bearing her image and the words "We stand with Aung San Suu Kyi." Some NLD members planned to donate blood to a local hospital to mark her release. Supporters started to go home in response to a call from party leaders, who said they still had no word on the timing of her release. Her supporters said they expected her to be freed but were still awaiting confirmation from the authorities. "They cannot extend her detention according to the law," said one of her lawyers, Nyan Win. When the softly-spoken but indomitable opposition leader was last released in 2002 she drew huge crowds wherever she went a reminder that years of detention had not dimmed her immense popularity. Some observers believe her release could come with restrictions to ensure she cannot threaten the generals. "I am praying for her to be released," said a 30-year-old taxi driver in Yangon, adding that Suu Kyi had "suffered enough." 14 years The duration that Aung San Suu Kyi has remained under house arrest in the past 20 years

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Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi is on the verge of being freed from house arrest, officials in the military-ruled country said yesterday, as hundreds of her supporters gathered in anticipation.

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