New Delhi (Mizzima) – Repair work began in detained Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s colonial-era home on Thursday after six construction workers were allowed entry into her restricted lakeside residence on University Avenue.

After months of seeking permission, the Rangoon Special Branch Police, gave the go ahead to construct a partition on the balcony of the two-storey building, her party spokesperson told Mizzima.

“The permit was granted about two weeks ago, but work began yesterday. There were six workers yesterday but 10 workers will be required in all,” Nyan Win, spokesperson of the National League for Democracy party, said.

The colonial-era house, according to Nyan Win, has two balconies, one of them, connected to the main hallway of the upper storey, is only partitioned with glasses.

“The repair has to do with constructing a partition of the balcony with iron grills. Other small parts of the house will also be repaired,” Nyan Win said.

Built in the colonial-era, the house was given to Aung San Suu Kyi’s mother Daw Khin Kyi, former Burmese Ambassador to India in 1960, by the then Burmese democratic government led by Prime Minister U Nu.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who has lived in the house since her return to Burma in 1988, had said the balcony of the house lacks protection and could easily be broken into because there is no proper partition.

“I don’t remember the exact date and year, but there was an incident in the past where a burglar entered the house through the balcony,” NyanWin told Mizzima without elaborating on the incident.

Authorities in August sentenced the pro-democracy leader to another 18 months of detention after finding her guilty in an incident, where an American man, John William Yettaw, swam across about 2 kilometres of the Innya Lake and entered her house in May last year .

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent most of her 14 years in detention at her lakeside home on the University Avenue in Rangoon.

Reporting by Myint Maung, writing by Mungpi