POLICE BAR SECOND VISIT

Police Bar Second Visit by Monks to Suu Kyi’s HomeBy The Irrawaddy September 23, 2007

Armed riot police backed by fire engines prevented a large crowd of monks and demonstrators from again approaching the Rangoon home of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Sunday.
Security forces allowed monks access to Suu Kyi’s lakeside home on Rangoon’s University Avenue on Saturday, and she came to her gate and talked briefly with them. It was the first time she had been seen in public since her latest term of house arrest began four years ago.
Security forces bearing riot shields lined up in front of her gate on Saturday but allowed a group of monks through.
When around 400 monks and pro-democracy demonstrators tried again on Sunday to approach her home they were stopped at police barricades erected at two ends of her street. Two monks representing the demonstrators negotiated in vain with the police, prayed and then withdrew. The crowd also dispersed peacefully.
Earlier on Sunday, about 20,000 monks, white-clad nuns and demonstrators, applauded by bystanders, paraded through central Rangoon. Their route took them from the city’s Shwedagon Pagoda, past the US Embassy to the ancient Sule Pagoda in the city center. Bystanders joined hands in a human chain of protection along the route.
A leaflet issued by the Alliance of All Burma Buddhist Monks, obtained by The Irrawaddy on Sunday, called on students, workers, peasants, artists and intellectuals to join in peaceful demonstrations. The monks’ action represents the biggest challenge to Burma’s military government in nearly two decades.
The leaflet said the demonstrations should press three demands—“relieve the burden of the people’s daily lives, free political prisoners and national reconciliation.”
Meanwhile, Burma’s Information Minister Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan has reportedly told Burmese journalists, writers, movie actors and actresses to sign a pledge not to participate in the demonstrations.