Wired News: Suu Kyi's home - a "ca

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Subject: Wired News:  Suu Kyi's home - a "carnival" (Reuter)

    By Deborah Charles
     RANGOON, Burma (Reuter) - For six years both a virtual prison and a monument to
democracy, the once-secluded home of Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi has taken on a
carnival atmosphere within six days.
     Burma's ruling military unconditionally released the 50-year-old Nobel Peace laureate
from house arrest Monday.
     Now her home, previously an off-limits symbol of Burma's stalled fight for democracy, has
become a popular focal point in the capital.
     Food vendors, tourists and reporters join democracy supporters to crowd in front of the
central Rangoon house that was Suu Kyi's place of detention since 1989.
     The large, rundown house nestled behind high walls on the shores of Inya Lake used to be
an implicit monument to the democratic struggle. People scuttled past it under the watchful
eyes of military intelligence agents.
     Guards prevented people from stopping outside or taking pictures of the University
Avenue home in central Rangoon.
     But now hundreds of people flock to the house each day, and vendors have begun to set
up shop across the street. Everything from fruit to noodles to peacock feathers can now be
bought within easy sight and earshot of Suu Kyi's front gates.
     Cameramen and photographers shoot film and pictures freely, with no uniformed military
officers in sight.
     Only a few policemen patrol outside the house and traffic wardens try to control the steady
flow of cars streaming past the compound.
     Suu Kyi has made daily appearances since Tuesday to speak to her supporters and
assure them she is working for the good of their country. She often banters with them and said
she enjoys the interchanges.
     "I'd like to ask you not to come because it makes you tired to wait for hours here," Suu Kyi
said through a microphone Friday afternoon.
     "We are not tired!" people in the crowd shouted, laughing.
     On another occasion she told the people to go home and stay there quietly.
     "We've been doing that for the last six years," someone shouted to laughter and cheers.
     For several days earlier this week, hundreds of people stood quietly through heavy rain,
saying they wanted to wait and see Suu Kyi and would not leave just because of the
downpour.
     "We love her, we want to tell her that," said one woman who handed a short note to a
reporter, who was going inside, to pass on to Suu Kyi. "I just want her to know how I feel."
     A large, red, throne-like chair was brought to the front gates Saturday afternoon.
     The furniture shop owner who brought the chair said it was an offering for Suu Kyi, so she
could have something comfortable to sit on.
     Suu Kyi has articulated a popular urge for an end to military repression that has gripped
the country since 1962. She was a prominent opposition voice from mid-1988, when she
emerged to head the democracy movement, until her house arrest in July the following year.
     She has said this week she wants to put the past behind her and move forward in bringing
democracy to this military-ruled Southeast Asian nation.
     Western nations have acclaimed her release from house detention as a hopeful sign of an
eventual return to democratic government in Burma.
     Burma's ruling military said Saturday it must play a vital role in the country's future while
Suu Kyi said the army's position must be acceptable to the people.
  REUTER