BurmaNet: Report from Rangoon, 2/3

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/part 2 of 2

BURMANET: INSIDE THE WALLS

At the edge of the crowd, U Kyi Maung looks on, munching a
banana and sipping tea.  Six years ago, he looked years younger
than his age.  After the years of detention and poor treatment,
he looks every one of his eighty years.  Like most people in
Rangoon however, he is beaming. People who were thoroughly
dispirited just weeks ago now walk like they're all holding a
winning lottery ticket.  There is a fear also--that the winning
number, so unexpected, could just as quickly blow away.  Worse
still, they fear that the whole thing is a trick. But if only
for this afternoon, U Kyi Maung, the journalists, "the lady"
and the rest of Burma are jubuliant.

While the journalists and the Suu Kyi rediscover each other, a
light rain begins falling.  The rain doesn't deter some
photographer from asking for a photo opportunity on
the lawn, which she first protests and then indulges.

After the mass press conference ends, she continues meeting
small groups of reporters anxious to get an exclusive before
their deadlines.  Now there are chairs enough for all the
journalists who make it past the door, which is a change from
the first day.  When word of her release was announced, U Kyi
Maung, U Tin Oo, U Aung Shwe and U Lwin arrived at her house
within hours to meet with Suu Kyi.  Between the five of them
however, there were only four chairs.  As the youngest of them,
Suu Kyi sat on the floor amidst her "uncles" so they could have
chairs.

During her detention, Suu Kyi refused to accept favors from the
SLORC and insisted on paying for her own food.  As she ran out
of money, she was reduced to selling off her furniture until
the house was all but bare.  Who had been purchasing the
furniture was something of a mystery until the evening of her
release.  A truckload of her furniture arrived at the compound,
that evening, courtesy of the secret police.  Suu Kyi, still
refusing favors, declined to accept.  After some quick
mediation by one of her "uncles," a price was agreed to
"repurchase" the furniture.

Away from the crowd on the lakeshore side of the house, the
other residents of the compound are keeping away from the
shutter happy journalists wandering about. A half century ago,
two of the main rivals for power in Burma were Gen. Aung San
and Thakin Than Tun.  Gen. Aung San headed the Anti-Fascist
People's Freedom League and Than Tun founded the Burma
Communist Party.  Separated by politics, the two were
joined by family; Aung San married Daw Khin Gyi, Than Tun
married her sister, Daw Khin Khin Gyi.  Aung San was
assassinated while organizing an independent and democratic
Burma and Than Tun led the BCP into armed revolt against that
government, setting off Burma's still running civil wars.  Now,
Khin Khin Gyi, Suu Kyi's aunt and the widow of her father's
rival, still lives in a small wooden house that is hidden from
view behind untended bushes and tall grass.

The other residence in the compound is occupied by Ko Soe, the
son of another of Daw Suu's aunts.  Ko Soe, has been Daw Suu's
primary companion through the years of detention, sharing meals
with her and going out once every two weeks, accompanied by the
secret police, to buy her food. It is evident from the
perfectly tended rows of flowers behind his house what he has
been doing these last six years.

Coils of barbed wire still line the lakefront along with guard
posts for the secret police.  The bushes and grass have grown
so thick over the wire in six years that it is relatively easy
to simply walk over the wire.  Although now her "protectors"
rather than her warders, they remain publicity shy and decline
to be interviewed.  "Go away" is the only comment they offer.

At the other end of the compound, near the gate, is a brick
structure with some of its walls missing.  This building was an
NLD office when the troops came in to arrest Daw Suu and her
followers on the 20th of July, 1989.  Now, one of those
arrested that day, points it out as the secret police
headquarters in the compound.  Several men are in the building
sitting at the table.  On enquiry as to whether they are M.I.,
one responds with a somewhat surly "no".  Perhaps not, but they
aren't NLD and the two of them have the journalist sign-in
roster laid out in front of them while they are cross-checking
it against the business cards they collected earlier--all of
which then gets noted in another list.

The Burmese word for secret police is "M.I.", as in Military
Intelligence.  Unfortunately, the British, on whom the system
is modelled, didn't have a secret police so the more accurate
"S.P." was never adopted.  Whatever they're called, it's
difficult on this day at least, to bear them ill will.  She,
who has far more reason to hate them, does not and it would
besides be out of keeping with the celebratory mood of the day.

During the years of her detention, Aung San Suu Kyi grew to
know some of her guards well, which may go part of the way to
explaining why she has asked that they be kept on to provide
security.

In the beginning of her detention, the guards were posted
inside the house as well.  With nothing else to do, says a well
informed source, Daw Suu Kyi pulled out a blackboard and
started teaching them English.  This created a problem because
the Burmese use an honorific term in addressing a teacher and
it was a bit confusing to have the guards addressing the
prisoner with a term of respect.  SLORC finally resolved the
problem by withdrawing the guards from inside the house.

Early on in her detention, according to another well-informed
source, Daw Suu Kyi requested the ingredients to bake a cake.
Perhaps with the idea that cooking was a more appropriate
activity for a Burmese woman than politics, they provided the
ingredients and she baked them a cake.  In the icing, she wrote
the words "Free the political prisoners."

It is again time for cake and celebration in Burma.  But soon,
the euphoria will wear off and given the SLORC's record,it is
difficult to imagine them capable of sincere intentions or the
capacity to negotiate something like a just solution.  But it
is her ability to transform even secret police guards into, if
not supporters, at least human beings, that allows one to begin
to imagine.  At least for a day.

/END