BurmaNet: Report from Rangoon, 1/3

[strider@xxxxxxxxxxx]

------------------------ BurmaNet ----------------------------
"Appropriate Information Technologies, Practical Strategies"
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The BurmaNet News: INSIDE THE WALLS
/part 1 of 2

NOTED IN PASSING:

          As you well know, Dr. Sein Win is my cousin.  He is a
          man of the utmost integrity and I'm sure if he is
          leading the NCGUB, he is not leading it astray.
                           Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
                           <See BURMANET: INSIDE THE WALLS>
                           *NCGUB=National Coalition Government
                           of the Union of Burma



BURMANET: INSIDE THE WALLS
July 14, 1995
by Strider

At 8:00pm this evening, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will pass her
hundredth hour in freedom.  She will by then, have given about
as many interviews.

As it has the last three mornings, her work day begins with an
early morning meeting of the National League for Democracy
(NLD) Executive Committee.  The mainstays of the NLD come and
go frequently: U Kyi Maung, U Tin Oo, U Aung Shwe, U Lwin.
Faces missing are NLD leaders dead or still in jail; U Chit
Khine among the former, Daw San San Nwe the latter.

In addition to the interviews and party meetings, some foreign
visitors come by, wedging their cars through the crowds at the
gate.  Today it is two staffers from Rep. Ben Gilman's office,
escorted by US Embassy officials.  The staffers, in and out of
the country in seven hours, want to know Daw Suu's views on
foreign aid to Burma.  Their boss is the powerful chairman of
the House Foreign Relations Committee and has threatened to cut
off all counter-narcotics aid to Burma on the grounds that the
SLORC is part of the drug problem, not its solution.

The staffers are just more in a line of people seeking her
attention, opinion or support on any of a number of issues.
Near the head of the line was Douglas Gardiner, who took less
than 24 hours from the time of her release to make it into the
compound. Gardiner, the country representative for the United
Nations Development Program, has good reason for his haste--a
truculant US Congress is threatening to kill funding for the
UNDP because of its program in Burma and Gardiner wants an
endorsement from her to wave at Congress. Judging from some
veiled comments at today's press conference, Gardiner and
his program are not yet out of the woods.

Squeezed somehow amidst the interviews (groups of four
journalists, every half hour until 7:30pm), there is time for
another brief speech over the blue compound gates to the crowd
gathered outside.  She stands on  a step ladder with young NLD
members at her sides, one holding her up, another holding an
amplifier the size of a steamer trunk.  She holds a microphone
in  one hand and uses the other to steady herself by holding on
to one of the cream-colored spikes topping the gate to her
compound.

How the crowd, now numbering several hundred, can hear her is a
mystery because the amplifier and mike, separated by all of
three feet, set off a high, whining feedback that should have
made her unintelligible.  Somehow, they understand her and
speaking for ten minutes in Burmese, she has the crowd cheering
and laughing.

Once she finishes, the crowd races away as if each of them were
hurrying off to an urgent appointment.  More likely, with no
prospect of "the lady" appearing again, such close proximity to
the MI agents at the gate is less than appealing.

As the crowd leaves, the journalists shove up against the gate,
trying to wedge their way through.  The MI guards providing
"security" don't even try to impose law and order on the poorly
behaved journalists outside. The small door opens and by sixes,
the journalists are admitted, signed in, asked for business
cards, then left to walk up to the house.

Inside the walls, life is beginning to return to normal--if
having a hundred barely housebroken strangers tramp through the
grounds can be normal.  Still, the jungle that used to be a
lawn has been hacked back.  The walls of the house still look
as if they're being held together with mildew, but for all
that, it is a beautiful place.

As the press conference begins, it is clear that the press and
the lady adore each other.  She protests that she really has
nothing new to say and that they should give her time to make
some news so they can report it.  For their part, they'll ntake
anything, as long as its from her.

A few of the questions are inane and most have been asked, and
answered, a hundred times already. Some questions invite swift
retaliation from the SLORC if answered too frankly: "What do
you think of Khin Nyunt?" [Answer: "he's charming."]   "What do
you think of Dr. Sein Win and the role of the NCGUB?" [Answer:
"As you well know, Dr. Sein Win is my cousin. He is a man of
the utmost integrity and I'm sure if he is leading the NCGUB,
he is not leading it astray."  She didn't say directly that the
NCGUB, considered by SLORC to be an illegal rebel group, had
represented her views while she was in detention, but the
underlying message is clear.

/continued.