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Freed Dissident Tells People to Exp



Subject:  Freed Dissident Tells People to Expect Tough Times Ahead 

Attn: Burma Newsreaders
Re:  Freed Dissident Tells People TO Expect Tough Times Ahead

By PHILIP SHENON 
c.1995 N.Y. Times News Service 

RANGOON, Burma - For years, the house at 54 University Avenue in Rangoon was
a place so off-limits, so forbidden, that few Burmese dared to walk past the
rusting metal gate, and none dared to stop. To linger at the gate was to
invite arrest by the plainclothed secret police who patrolled the street at
all hours. 

But on Wednesday, the curb outside No. 54 was a place of pilgrimage and
raucous celebration, drawing hundreds of the curious and the committed, all
of them wanting to catch at least a glimpse of Aung San Suu Kyi (pronounced
awng sahn sue chee), the Burmese opposition leader. 

On Monday, the 50-year-old Mrs. Suu Kyi was freed by the junta that runs
Burma, after nearly six years under house arrest. 

``We saw her, we saw Suu!'' a 20-year-old student from Rangoon University
screamed, beaming as she stepped back onto the street after a short meeting
inside the house. ``When I saw Aung San Suu Kyi in the house, she told us
that we must be brave. She said that our hearts must be strong.'' 

Mrs. Suu Kyi, who won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her non-violent campaign
to bring democracy to her homeland, did not leave the lakeside compound on
Wednesday, but instead invited in dozens of the men and women who waited
patiently on the street to see her. 

As word of her offer to receive visitors spread, hundreds more people -
especially students from Rangoon University and nearby high schools - crowded
at the gate. 

Despite the size of the crowd, foreign diplomats here did not see in it for
now the makings of a powerful threat to the Burmese military. The junta has
largely crushed the political apparatus Mrs. Suu Kyi once controlled. A
number of her former deputies in the democracy movement are still in prison
or, if free, admit they are now too frightened to help her. 

The junta gave no explanation for her release. In fact, it has yet to make a
formal announcement in Burma. The news has instead been carried on the
shortwave-radio broadcasts of the BBC and the Voice of America, which many
Burmese consider the only reliable source of information in the country. 

Since her release, many diplomats have been struck by Mrs. Suu Kyi's
conciliatory tone toward the military. ``She pretty clearly wants to try to
work with the generals,'' a Western diplomat said. ``And I don't think
there's much doubt that her supporters will follow her lead. Nobody would
dare question this woman's authority.'' 

In a meeting on Wednesday with reporters in her living room - a sparsely
furnished parlor decorated with faded photographs of her father, Gen. Aung
San, the nation's independence hero - Mrs. Suu Kyi said it was too early to
discuss her plans. 

``I won't really make any decisions about what my next step is going to be
until I have consulted my colleagues,'' she said. ``I'm not in a hurry to
prove anything. Whatever I do, I want it to be of solid value to the
country.'' 

But she said she would at some point resume an active public campaign to
bring democracy to Burma, a country of 45 million that has been ruled by the
military for virtually all of its modern history. 

``I think the authorities do know that I shall be active politically because
I look upon myself as a politician,'' she said. ``That's not a dirty word,
you know.'' 

She said again that she was ready to meet with leaders of the junta that took
power in 1988 in a violent crackdown on her supporters. 

``Everything is open to negotiation and all problems can be solved through
good will and compromise,'' she said. ``I would like to take this opportunity
to warn everybody not to expect too much too quickly. I think there is still
a long way ahead and the way is not going to be all that smooth.'' 

She said that she had received no further messages from the junta since it
released her. Nor, she said, has she been she been in touch with her husband,
Michael Aris, a Tibet scholar at Oxford University, and their two sons in
England. 

``I don't have a phone,'' she said, laughing at her continuing isolation. ``I
must do something about that, mustn't I? But I'm not really sure I want to do
anything about it because it'll never stop ringing.'' 

-----------------------------------------------end. (fb.0713.nytimes)