Dissident Plans a More Active Role in Myanmar
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the most high-profile dissident in Myanmar, signaled on Monday that she would be seeking to broaden her audience in her country since being released from house arrest. Speaking from Myanmar via a live video link to an audience at the University of Hong Kong, she confirmed that she would begin traveling outside of Yangon, the biggest city in Myanmar and its economic capital, a move that may test boundaries imposed on her since her release in November.
In 2003, during a period free from detention, Mrs. Aung San Suu Ky toured the country, drawing increasingly large crowds, and on one trip, a band of men attacked her convoy in what some people believed was an assassination attempt. She was then sent back to house arrest. On Monday she also urged the international community to reach out to the opposition movement in Myanmar by using modern communications technology. In the months since her release from house arrest, Mrs. Aung San Suu Ky, recipient of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, has used video links and other means to connect with students and activists in Europe and North America.
“We can help each other now — we now have the ability,” she said after being asked how people outside of Myanmar could an engage with her and other pro-democracy activists inside her country. Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi would not specify when or where she would travel, or even the purpose of her trips. But she pointedly noted on Monday that the government had not provided assurances of her safety and that she had made it clear that she expected the authorities to ensure her security. “It is the duty of the government to provide assurances,” she said.