Suu Kyi, in trouble, remembers martyrs

Suu Kyi, in trouble, remembers martyrs

YANGON (Reuter): Myanmar's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday made a low-key appearance at an official Martyrs' Day ceremony as state-run media attacked her for urging the West to impose economic sanctions on Myanmar.

A solemn-looking Suu Kyi, dressed in a black traditional longyi (sarong), a white blouse and black shawl, placed three baskets of flowers at her father's tomb at the Martyrs' Mausoleum, bowed before it and then left the ceremony.

She arrived in a government car, and was accompanied by Lt. Col. Then Tun, the man who used to be the liaison officer between the military and Suu Kyi when she was under house arrest.

Suu Kyi, the 51-year old leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, was released from six years of house arrest last July.

Minister of Culture Aung San represented the military government at the ceremony, a solemn occasion held each year to remember the nine martyrs who were murdered on July 19, 1947.

Suu Kyi's father Gen. Aung San, the architect of Burma's independence from Britain, six of his pre-independence cabinet colleagues and two others were gunned down while they were holding a meeting six months before Myanmar's independence.

Diplomats and observers had said earlier in the week if Suu Kyi refused an invitation to the ceremony, or if the military did not invite her to attend, it could hurt already shaky relations between the government and the opposition.

Suu Kyi said in a video, made public by the European Parliament on Thursday, that she favored international sanctions on Myanmar to force political change.

She has repeatedly said over the past few months sanctions would hurt the government and not the majority of the people because the military has more to gain from recent investments than ordinary Myanmarese do.

Faced with international pressure on companies not to invest in Myanmar, Carlsberg, Heineken and Pepsi have recently pulled out of Myanmar.

Several U.S. apparel firms have also decided not to renew contracts with Burmese suppliers.

Suu Kyi did not make any comments after appearing at the mausoleum. She was due to offer a meal to Buddhist monks later in the morning to honor the memory of her father and other martyrs, NLD officials said.

Relatives of the other eight martyrs arrived separately after Suu Kyi, to lay wreaths at the mausoleum as a steady drizzle fell across the city.