MAUNG MYO HTUN.ENG

Suu Kyi Attends Martyrs' Day Ceremony

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By KO HTWE Tuesday, July 19, 2011

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Aung San Suu Kyi walks to offer flowers at her father's tomb at the Martyrs Mausoleum. (Photo: AP)

For the first time in nine years, Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi attended an official ceremony for Martyrs' Day, a national holiday in Burma that commemorates the assassination in 1947 of her father Gen Aung San and eight colleagues from the country's independence movement.
Government officials sent an invitation to Suu Kyi last week, and the Nobel Peace Prize laureate agreed to attend the ceremony at Rangoon Martyrs' Mausoleum on Tuesday morning.

Kyaw Soe Naing, one of Suu Kyi's bodyguards, told The Irrawaddy  that government officials picked up Suu Kyi at her home at 8:30 am.
Suu Kyi and her youngest son, Htein Lin (aka Kim Aris), previously visited the Martyrs’ Mausoleum earlier this month to pay respect to her father and his fallen colleagues.

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Suu Kyi revisited the Martyrs' Mausoleum again on Tuesday afternoon alongside Central Executive Committee members of her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), as well as leading members of the Committee Representing the People's Parliament and the NLD's youth network. Some 2,000 people led by Suu Kyi were reported to have joined the procession at the time of print.

The short march from the headquarters of NLD to the Martyrs’ Mausoleum was the biggest public demonstration since 2007, when the military junta launched a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.
Meanwhile nearly 200 youths in Rangoon marked the occasion by staging a march on Tuesday morning from Tamwe Township to the Martyrs' Mausoleum in Banhan Township to pay tribute to those assassinated.
“The security forces are walking alongside us, because they want to ensure that the public do not join in,” said Naw Ohn Hla, a women activist who took part in the commemorative march.
“We are following in the steps of 88 Generation students' leader Min Ko Naing,” said participant Tin Min Naing. “Ever since Min Ko Naing was arrested, we have paid tribute to the martyrs every year,” he said, adding that locals lined the road and cheered the marchers.
Martyrs Day commemorates the anniversary of the assassination of nine heroes of Burma’s independence movement—including Gen Aung San—on July 19, 1947, just six months before Burma regained its independence from Britain.

Aung San is considered the father of Burmese independence, and led the fight for colonial liberation from Britain, which had ruled Burma since 1885. Just six months before Burma achieved independence, he and eight colleagues were assassinated by political opponent U Saw and his group on July 19, 1947.