Wired News: Suu Kyi's next move (U

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Subject: Wired News:  Suu Kyi's next move (UP)

By JOHN HAIL
   RANGOON, July 15 (UPI) -- Aung San Suu Kyi Saturday plotted the next move in her
cautious transition from the world's most famous political prisoner to the leader of Burma's
fractured democracy opposition.
   After a day of tightly scheduled meetings with political supporters and Rangoon-based
diplomats, Suu Kyi mounted a platform in front of her lake-side home to deliver a brief speech
to about 500 cheering supporters.
   "Your very presence here shows that I have the support of the people," she said. "I hope
that support will continue." 
   She urged her followers to "keep up your moral strength," and  "conduct yourselves with
discipline, courage and cleverness. Don't do anything rash."
   Caution has been recurring theme in her remarks to supporters since she was released last
Monday after nearly six years of house arrest.
   Her confinement on July 20, 1989 effectively decapitated the National League for
Democracy (NLD), which had mounted the most serious threat to military rule in Burma since
former dictator General Ne Win seized control of the country in 1962.
   But the NLD still managed to win a landslide victory in a 1990 national election, a result the
ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council refused to recognize. 
   Suu Kyi has spent much of her first week of freedom in closed-door meetings with past and
present NLD leaders who are not in jail or exile.
   "She told us to give her unqualified support," said U Myat Hla, an NLD member of
Parliament representing the town of Pegu. "The line of action is unknown to me. I think she will
guide us."
   NLD activists say Suu Kyi, 50, is planning her next political moves with extreme care.
   Each day the crowds, sometimes numbering several thousand, have gathered in front of
her home. And most days she has come as far as the front gate to thank her supporters while
urging them to remain patient and disciplined.
   "She doesn't dare come out yet," said one supporter. "There would be a mob scene. This
would give the army the pretext they need to crack down."
   So far the soldiers have kept a low profile. Generally only two or three uniformed sentries
are on duty in front of the house, along with some white-helmeted police to keep the adjoining
University Avenue clear.
   Asked by a reporter whether some of the young men in the crowd, dressed in traditional
'lonji' sarongs, might be undercover agents for Military Intelligence, one NLD supporter
replied, "Most of them."
   Local analysts say the Burmese holiday of Martyrs' Day next Wednesday could provide an
opportunity for a public app of popular support and risk a violent confrontation with military
authorities.
   Her busy schedule is a sharp departure from her years of confinement, when she said
would rise at 4:30 a.m. each day, meditate and listen to the English and Burmese broadcasts
of the British Broadcasting Corporation and the Voice of America.
   At a press conference Friday she begged dozens of foreign reporters to leave her in
peace in order to allow her to "meet with my own people."
   But Suu Kyi has no intention of avoiding the spotlight. She has indicated that given the
chance, she will gladly assume the leadership x years under house arrest, she replied with
characteristic conviction,  "Not in the least bit."