Dozens of plain-clothes policemen followed Burma’s democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, as she took a rare holiday in a Buddhist temple complex, a trip which is testing her uneasy relationship with the country’s government.
Small crowds of wellwishers surrounded Ms Suu Kyi, and her younger son, Kim Aris, as they toured the ancient city of Pagan in central Burma, on her first visit outside Burma’s largest city, Rangoon, since her release last year after seven years under house arrest.
Despite their presence, the police made no attempt to interfere. The Nobel Prize winner gave no speeches, following official demands that her party, the National League for Democracy, abandon its political activities.
“I am very happy,” she told the Associated Press news agency. “This is my first vacation with my son in 20 years. I never have enough sleep at home but now I want to sleep all the time. I have time to rest.”
Ms Suu Kyi has said that she intends to give a series of public speeches in regional towns, a necessary strategy if she is to put pressure on the dictatorship, but one which risks provoking a repressive or violent reaction.
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The last time Ms Suu Kyi travelled outside Rangoon in 2003, she narrowly escaped assassination when her convoy was set upon by government sponsored thugs who killed scores of her supporters near the town of Depayin. She was arrested, tried, returned to detention, and not set free until last November.
Last week the Government made what many regard as a veiled threat to Ms Suu Kyi. A commentary in the state media said: “We are deeply concerned that if Daw [Madam] Aung San Suu Kyi makes trips to countryside regions, there may be chaos and riots, as evidenced by previous incidents.”