Politics still 'off limits' for Suu Kyi after tour

Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi drew large crowds on a landmark trip to rural Myanmar that tested her freedom, but experts say the regime will tolerate her activities only up to a point. The Nobel Peace Prize winner was trailed by plain clothes police but allowed to travel unhindered as she avoided making public speeches on the low-key four-day excursion to the ancient city of Bagan and nearby villages. Observers warned that a full political tour, if it goes ahead, could still trigger a confrontation with the new army-backed government, which has issued stern warnings for Suu Kyi to stay out of politics. "The regime playing nice to her this time should not fool anyone into thinking that as soon as she travels the country to in effect reconnect with her base politically the regime is to sit back and watch, undisturbed," said Maung Zarni, a researcher and activist at the London School of Economics. Suu Kyi refrained from any overtly political activities that might have antagonised the regime during her first trip outside the main city of Yangon since she was freed by the junta from house arrest last November. The democracy hero, who spent most of the past two decades as a prisoner in her own home, made no comments on Friday to a throng of reporters following her every move before she boarded a flight back to Yangon. "We had a break but did not rest," her youngest son Kim Aris, a British national who accompanied his mother on the trip, told AFP. "There were too many people everywhere, but you can't get away from that." Suu Kyi, 66, signed autographs and posed for pictures as she visited temples, markets and souvenir shops in and around Bagan, one of the top tourist destinations in Myanmar, also known as Burma. As word spread that the softly-spoken but indomitable opposition leader was nearby, hundreds of supporters gathered to catch a glimpse, some weeping with joy and others shouting: "Mother Suu, may you be in good health!" The crowds that she attracted, while much smaller than those seen when she last travelled in 2002 and 2003, were a reminder of her enduring popularity among many Burmese, despite a long absence from public view. "I dropped what I was doing at home when I heard she was coming. I had to meet her in person," 54-year-old housewife Nwe Nwe said while waiting to greet Suu Kyi in front of a lacquerware workshop in Bagan. The question now is whether the success of the trip emboldens the dissident to launch a tour with a more overtly political tone, in defiance of a warning from the regime that "chaos and riots" could ensue if she went ahead. The regime is sending Suu Kyi a clear message that overt political activities such as public speeches are "off limits", said Trevor Wilson, a former Australian ambassador to Myanmar. But her National League for Democracy party "might think it's worth their risk being a bit provocative... They do need to demonstrate that they're relevant," said Wilson, a visiting fellow at Australian National University. "It's a bit of a cat-and-mouse game but it's very hard to be confident that it's going to end peacefully. It's more likely to lead to some kind of disorder. There could be minor violence," he said. Security is a major concern because Suu Kyi's convoy was attacked in 2003 during a political trip, in an ambush apparently organised by a regime frightened by her popularity. Suu Kyi -- the daughter of Myanmar's liberation hero General Aung San, who was assassinated in 1947 -- was arrested along with many party activists on that occasion and later placed under house arrest for a third time. The dissident's National League for Democracy (NLD) party sent many of its own members to Bagan this week to protect her, one of the party's private security personnel told AFP on condition of anonymity. "We think the authorities also took care of the security. They asked local people not to do this and that," he said. Suu Kyi's release in November was widely seen as an attempt to deflect criticism of an election that was marred by complaints of cheating. The military's political proxies claimed an overwhelming victory in the poll. The NLD, which won a landslide election victory two decades ago that was never recognised by the junta, was disbanded by the military rulers last year because it boycotted the recent vote, saying the rules were unfair. Some observers think the new government would have no qualms about limiting Suu Kyi's freedom again if she is perceived as a threat. "I think they would quite quickly restrict her movements if she did something that gave them a pretext," said Wilson.