Suu Kyi bids to unite Myanmar opposition

Myanmar democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi signalled that she wants to reunite the country’s fractured opposition on a visit to her party’s headquarters the day after her release from house arrest. She also made an emotional phone call to her son, according to the British embassy in Thailand.

Reuters

“I want to work with all democratic forces,” Suu Kyi told a huge crowd of supporters outside the offices of her National League for Democracy (NLD) on Sunday.

The declaration is an olive branch to fellow opponents of military rule who have disagreed with her tactics, especially the National Democratic Force, which split from the NLD and stood in recent elections organised by the military government.

 
The breakaway party is ready to work with Suu Kyi, one of its leaders Khin Maung Swe indicated Sunday.

"We see her not only as the head of the NLD but also the democracy leader for 59 million people," he told the AFP news agency.

Suu Kyi, who was freed from house arrest Saturday, told her followers that she wants to “hear the voice of the people” before deciding her strategy after this year's election, which was overwhelmingly won by pro-military parties amid charges of vote-rigging.

"You have to stand up for what is right,” she said. “A one-woman show is not a democracy," adding that the "basis of democratic freedom is freedom of speech".

Suu Kyi has spent 15 of the last 20 years in detention and her supporters fear that the military may detain her again at any time.

"She faces being rearrested,” says Soe Aung for the Thailand-based Forum for Democracy in Burma.  “Today's event drew more than 30,000 people, and could break any existing Burmese law.  So she is facing rearrest by the military regime at any second".

Suu Kyi made an “emotional” phone call to her youngest son, Kim Aris, the British embassy in Bangkok said Sunday.

Aris, who is 33 years old, is in Thailand trying to get a Myanmar visa,