Supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi fear for her safety after she was set free by Burma's military government.
Nant Bwa Bwa Phan, a UK representative of the Burmese community, said the release of the pro-democracy leader was "a public relations exercise to fool the international community".
"Now that she has been released, the generals can say that she is no longer in their care or their custody," a journalist in Rangoon has told SBS, asking to remain anonymous. Many foreign journalists have been detained and deported since the beginning of the election.
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"So there's some concern that they could wash their hands from any sense of responsibility for her now," he added.
"We should keep in mind that in 2003, after they released her the last time, so government-backed people attacked her convoy when she was campaigning in the north of the country, and a hundreds of her followers were killed.
"Suu Kyi narrowly escaped assassination herself, really only through the quick wits of her driver, who managed to get her to safety. So they tried it in the past and there's certainly concerns that now that she is free -- and she is free to tour the countryside, something similar could happen to her again".
"There's no doubt the generals are aware of her growing popularity and she will continue to be a thorn in their side and we just don't know if the generals have released her because they have another plan in mind," the reporter told SBS.
Other human rights groups were equally sceptical about her release.
"Unfortunately, her release alone is virtually meaningless until the junta enters into an irreversible process of dialogue resulting in national reconciliation between the junta, the National League for Democracy, and ethnic groups and a restoration of democracy to Burma," said the head of Freedom Now, a US-based legal advocacy group that serves as Suu Kyi's international counsel, using the country's former name.
Jared Genser pointed out in a statement that Suu Kyi has been released three times before "and nothing fundamentally changed in the country."
Suu Kyi has been detained for 15 of the last 21 years, with her most recent stretch beginning May 30, 2003.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy and its allies won the country's last, and only democratic election, in 1990 by a huge margin but it was never recognized by the junta.
The junta released her following the November 7 elections which were widely condemned as a sham by the international community.
"Her release now is a deeply cynical ploy by the military government to distract the international community from its illegitimate elections," said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director of New York-based Human Rights Watch.
"If the military government is serious about increasing political space after the elections then it will release all political prisoners immediately and unconditionally," she said.
Amnesty International said Suu Kyi's release "only marks the end of an unfair sentence that was illegally extended, and is by no means a concession on the part of the authorities."
