Suu Kyi tests her freedom

THOUSANDS of well-wishers lined roadsides in Burma to welcome opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi as she tested the limits of her freedom yesterday by taking her first political trip into the countryside since her release from house arrest.

The military-dominated country’s government had warned that the democracy icon’s journey could trigger riots, but it took place peacefully in two towns north of the main city of Rangoon, and Suu Kyi returned home without incident.

The last time Suu Kyi travelled out of Rangoon to meet supporters, assailants ambushed her entourage. She escaped harm but was detained and placed under seven years of house arrest, from which she was only released last November.