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Suu Kyi greets monks in tears
22/09/2007 14:09 - (SA)
Yangon - Detained Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi stepped out of her home in tears Saturday to greet Buddhist monks marching past the compound where she is confined by the military junta, witnesses said.
Armed guards usually block the road leading to the rambling lakeside house, but in an unprecedented move, they allowed about 1 000 monks to walk past the home where she was been detained for most of the last 18 years.
Under rainy skies, Aung San Suu Kyi walked out with two other women and cried as she paid her respects to the monks as they marched past in the mid-afternoon, the witnesses said.
The monks stopped outside her home for about 15 minutes and chanted a Buddhist prayer: "May we be completely free from all danger, may we be completely free from all grief, may we be completely free from poverty, may we have peace in heart and mind."
The witnesses said she did not appear to speak to the monks, who have been leading a series of protests against the military government since Monday.
About 20 uniformed security police had opened a roadblock near Aung San Suu Kyi's house and did not interrupt the monks as they chanted, they added.
After the monks left, the security officials again closed the roadblock.
The 62-year-old Nobel peace prize winner has virtually no contact with the outside world, apart from a live-in maid and periodic visits from her personal doctor.
Her National League for Democracy party won a landslide victory in elections in 1990, but the miltary has never recognised the result.
- SAPA
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