Myanmar's Suu Kyi tests freedom, meets supporters

The last time the democracy icon travelled into the countryside to meet supporters, assailants ambushed her entourage in an attack that eventually saw her detained and later placed under a long house arrest from which she was released last November.

Suu Kyi's one-day voyage to meet supporters Sunday in two towns north of the main city of Yangon was proceeding peacefully despite a government warning that it could trigger riots.
In the town of Bago, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate greeted more than 300 supporters at a pagoda as crowds shouted "Long Live Daw Aung San Suu Kyi!"

Maw Thuza, a 35-year-old woman watching the scene, said, "I can die happily now that I've seen her." Suu Kyi was travelling in a three-car convoy followed by about 27 more vehicles filled mostly with journalists and supporters. Some people stood along the roadsides to wave as she passed. Security agents, with wireless microphones protruding from their civilian clothes, monitored the visit.

Bago is about 50 miles (80 kilometres) north of Yangon. Suu Kyi was also to visit political supporters in the nearby town of Thanatpin and open a public library, said one of her spokesman, Nyan Win, who said he expected the day to be peaceful.