Apr 17 (AFP) - Riot police barred Burma's democracy activists from reaching Aung San Suu Kyi's home after up to 400 members of her opposition party staged a rare procession calling for her release.
The National League for Democracy (NLD) members, dressed in the party's signature colours, had marched through the capital to a point on Inya lake facing the Nobel peace laureate's home where she is being detained. They released fish from earthenware bowls, in a Buddhist ritual marking traditional new year's day which falls Saturday, but which took on political significance as pressure mounts for the ruling junta to free Aung San Suu Kyi.
"We Buddhists think it is better to release things and not harm things," said U Bala, an NLD member elected in disallowed 1990 national polls which the party won in a landslide.
"We did this because we are praying for the release of not only our leadership but also all of our co-workers who are presently in jail. This ritual was on their behalf," he told AFP.
Military intelligence officers kept a close watch but did not attempt to interfere with the procession, which was joined by several monks, and was considered inviolate because of its religious nature.
However, when the group began to disperse about a dozen activists made their way in small groups to Aung San Suu Kyi's University Drive home, but were stopped by some 15 uniformed riot police.
The road is normally blocked
off with barricades and a boom gate. Once ordered back, the NLD members dispersed
peacefully, witnesses said. Myanmar's junta earlier Saturday re-opened the NLD
headquarters which
was closed a year ago during a political crackdown that also saw Aung San Suu
Kyi and the rest of the NLD leadership taken into detention.
The move, and the release
on Tuesday for two top NLD members, has intensified speculation that Aung San
Suu Kyi will be freed within days, or at least before a national constitutional
convention to be held on May 17.
The timing of the NLD procession Saturday, and its public nature, make it an
unmistakably political act that is almost unheard of in this repressive state.
Mostly women, old people and members of the party's youth wing, the marchers were dressed in the NLD's signature saffron shirts and green longyis, or sarongs, and party badges were prominently displayed.
Their procession, which went for several kilometres (miles) and lasted about an hour, began after a new year ceremony was held at the home of a senior party member.
The gesture also indicated that the NLD remains unbowed despite a year of repression and the closure of its branch offices nationwide which effectively shut the party down.
After blocking the path of the marchers, the riot police redeployed outside the NLD headquarters in downtown Yangon but remained in their vehicle, witnesses said.