Myanmar Calm as Dissident Ventures Out

Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and opposition leader in Myanmar, made her first public appearance Wednesday since she was freed from almost six years of house arrest, but both the opposition and military authorities appeared determined to avoid conflict.

Suu Kyi, 50, left her house on a lake in the capital, Yangon, to attend ceremonies marking Martyrs Day in the nation formerly known as Burma. The holiday commemorates the 1947 assassinations of her father, Gen. Aung San, widely revered as the father of the nation’s independence movement, and a number of his comrades.

Suu Kyi was accompanied to the ceremony by Lt. Col. Than Tun, a military intelligence officer who has acted as the liaison between the opposition leader and the military regime, which calls itself the State Law and Order Restoration Council. No members of the council took part in the ceremony.

Although some diplomats had anticipated a huge turnout Wednesday, the crowd was sparse. Suu Kyi, dressed in black, placed baskets of flowers at the Martyrs Museum but did not speak.

The pro-democracy leader was placed under house arrest in 1989 when she announced that she planned to lead her National League for Democracy in a special commemoration of the Martyrs Day holiday. The regime then filled Yangon with troops to prevent a demonstration of NLD strength.

Since her release July 10, Suu Kyi has preached harmony with the military and her attendance Wednesday appeared designed to reassure the junta’s leaders that she would not incite the public to violence. The regime came to power in 1988 after clashes between troops and pro-democracy demonstrators left thousands dead in Yangon.

Suu Kyi told an interviewer earlier this week: “I believe that everything is open to negotiation, and all problems can be solved through goodwill and compromise.”