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Wired News: Suu Kyi's Appearance a



Subject: Wired News:  Suu Kyi's Appearance at Memorial (Reuter)

    By Deborah Charles
     RANGOON, Burma (Reuter) - Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi made a
subdued appearance Wednesday at an official Martyrs' Day ceremony to mourn her father
and other national heroes.
     Dressed in a black sarong and a shawl, the recently freed 50-year-old Nobel Peace Prize
laureate walked quietly along a red carpet and placed baskets of flowers at the Martyrs'
Mausoleum in central Rangoon.
     She was silent as she stood in front of the memorial to her father, independence hero Gen.
Aung San, and eight others who were assassinated July 19, 1947, as they prepared for the
handover of an independent Burma from Britain.
     Martyrs' Day is Burma's national mourning day, marking the murders of Aung San, six of
his ministers, a secretary and bodyguard who were killed as they held a Cabinet meeting.
     Suu Kyi was accompanied by Lt. Col. Than Tun, the military intelligence officer who served
as her liaison officer during her six years under house arrest.
     After paying her respects, she got into a waiting car and left without speaking to reporters
or officials.
     The event was quiet, with few people in the streets and no large crowds waiting to see the
opposition leader. But as many as 1,000 people gathered outside her home later in the day.
     "We'll follow the road they laid down," Suu Kyi, standing on a table behind her front gate,
told the cheering crowd.
     "We'll never betray the people nor their struggle for democracy," she said through a
megaphone.
     As on previous occasions when she has spoken to delighted crowds outside her house,
she called for public support for her efforts to bring democracy to her country.
     "It is because of the peoples' support and strength that I've reached this place," she said.
     About 100 foreign reporters, photographers and cameramen later drank tea and ate
cakes in the garden of her home.
     After asking that all cameras be turned off and no pictures be taken, Suu Kyi mingled,
signing autographs and asking reporters about their visits to Rangoon.
     One close adviser to Suu Kyi said she held the tea because "she thought most of you
would be going home soon."
  REUTER