Opposition ladies in Burma pray for Aung San Suu Kyi

Dec 27, 2006, 11:50 GMT

Yangon - A group of women who regularly brave Burma's military spies to pray for detained opposition heroine Aung San Suu Kyi gave food to Buddhist monks Wednesday, after being banned from the country's famous Shwedagon Pagoda.

The group, lead by the former head of the women's wing of the National League for Democracy, Daw Naw Ohn Hla, made the religious and political gesture at the prominent Tha-tha-na-gon-ye monastery of Abbot Sayadaw U Zawana in Bahan Township Yangon.

Political activists have regularly prayed for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi at the Shwedagon that dominates the Yangon skyline since July 2004. The popular opposition leader has been confined to her house after a group of militia and thugs ambushed her cavalcade in May 2004. Aside from rare foreign visitors she has been isolated and apparently, at times, ill.

The prayers were previously held in the Tuesday corner of the Shwedagon because that is the day Suu Kyi was born. The pagoda's authorities recently banned 'political prayers' at the Tuesday hall and loudspeakers around the temple warn visitors not to engage in political activities.

Suu Kyi has been the focal point of the opposition to the military that has ruled since a 1962 coup. Her NLD party won a 1990 election by a landslide, which was ignored by the ruling generals.

The regime has arrested student leaders engaged in the 'prayers for peace' campaign and last month temporarily detained activists who attempted to pray at the Shwedagon.

Burma's police chief Brig-Gen Khin Yi said last month that activists were exploiting the country's sacred places for political reasons.

Suu Kyi has notably attempted to win the moral high ground with righteous behavior and self-sacrifice in her campaign to move Myanmar towards democracy. The ruling generals have countered by building and restoring Buddhist temples.