100,000 Attend Funeral in Burma

More than 100,000 Burmese poured into the streets of the capital of Rangoon on Monday to join a funeral procession for the widow of national independence hero Aung San.

It was the biggest popular outpouring since a bloody army takeover in September.

Throngs led by Buddhist monks and students walked in a procession behind the coffin of Khin Kyi, who died last Tuesday at the age of 75.

Some students defied authorities by carrying banners of the National League for Democracy, the biggest opposition party, which is led by Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of the deceased.

After the funeral, the crowds dispersed peacefully.

Aung San Suu Kyi and other family members walked behind the coffin, carried by a flower-strewn hearse in the slow procession under a hot sun.

Groups of students, some of whom helped lead last summer’s uprising against military-led Socialist rule, marched at the head of the procession carrying placards identifying their colleges.

Khin Kyi, who had been partly paralyzed by a series of strokes, became a national political figure after the assassination of her husband in 1947.