Aung San Suu Kyi visits site where political career began

Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's freed democracy leader, maintained her determination to return to her normal life when she prayed with her youngest son at the country's holiest Buddhist site, the place where her political career began.

Aung San Suu Kyi last saw Kim Aris in December 2000 Photo: EPA

By Ian MacKinnon in Bangkok 2:17PM GMT 24 Nov 2010

Kim Aris, 33, who lives in Britain, and his Nobel laureate mother paid homage Rangoon's gold-domed Shwedagon Pagoda, in the corners linked to the days on which they were born.

Then the pair, wearing traditional Burmese garb, gave flowers as an offering and ritually poured water over the statues. Asked what she prayed for, she laughed and replied: "I cannot reveal it. Otherwise, my wishes might not be fulfilled."

Ms Suu Kyi, 65, was reunited with her son after a decade when he flew into Rangoon on Tuesday after he was finally being granted a visa following a three-week wait in the neighbouring Thai capital.

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She was freed from seven years' house arrest ten days earlier and met Mr Aris at the airport, where he pulled off his over-shirt to reveal a tattoo of the symbol of Ms Suu Kyi's now dissolved National League for Democracy party.

The return to Shwedagon was symbolic in other ways. It was the site where in 1988 she gave her first big speech calling for democracy in the country ruled by the military for 48 years.

It was also the focal point where monks gathered during the so-called "Saffron Revolution" in 2007, which was also ruthlessly put down by the military.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/burmamyanmar/8157014/Aung-San-Suu-Kyi-visits-site-where-political-career-began.html