Wired News: Freed Activist urges d

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Subject: Wired News:  Freed Activist urges democracy in Burma

By JOHN HAIL
   RANGOON, July 14 (UPI) -- Burma's newly freed opposition leader Aung Aan Suu Kyi
urged her supporters Friday to be courageous and disciplined in the struggle to bring
democracy to the military-ruled nation.
   In a brief address to about 2,000 wildly cheering people in front of her home in Rangoon,
Suu Kyi said patience also would be needed to change the course of Burmese history.
   In a scene reminiscent of the 1988 pro-democracy uprising that catapulted her to
international prominence, the crowd, including students from nearby Rangoon University,
chanted, "Long live Aung San Suu Kyi."
   The Nobel Peace laureate earlier met with leaders of the National League for Democracy,
including the group's caretaker general secretary, Kyi Maung.
   "We've got to continue our work," she told reporters. "We have to walk a long hard road."
   Suu Kyi, 50, was freed Monday after nearly six years under house arrest. Since then she
has held a series of meetings at her lakeside residence with groups of Burmese democracy
activists and foreign journalists.
   She reiterated her call for talks with leaders of the military junta, which has imposed a news
blackout on her release and subsequent activities.
   "There is no way you can achieve reconciliation unless you talk to each other," she said. 
   Suu Kyi said it was too soon to tell whether her release would mean a turn away from
military repression toward the open, democratic system advocated by the National League
for Democracy.
   "I have to wait to see more of them before I can get the vibes that will tell me whether or not
they've changed," she said.
   On a personal level, she said that in a meeting last year she found junta leader Khin Nyunt
"rather charming." 
   She urged a cautious approach by the World Bank and other international lending
institutions that have withheld development aid since the military brutally suppressed
Burma's democracy movement.
   "They should wait to see whether there is a genuine move toward reconciliation and a truly
democratic system of government," she said.
   Suu Kyi had the same message for foreign businesses who have cited the policy of
"constructive engagement" to justify their presence in Burma.
   "I cannot say at this moment whether foreign investment has helped our cause or not," she
said.
   She expressed optimism that Burma's pro-democracy movement would continue,
"because it represents the will of the people and the will of the people can never be finished."