The Burmese Nobel Peace Prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi (55), will fight a "war of endurance" to force Burma's military regime to allow her to travel freely, her party said yesterday as a standoff on the outskirts of Rangoon went until a fourth night.
The opposition leader and a dozen supporters were blocked on Thursday as they attempted to travel to meeting to the party's youth wing in defiance of the junta's ban on her leaving the capital.
Aung San Suu Kyi refused to obey the military's request to turn back and has sent an uncomfortable four days camped out in her car in wet and steamy monsoon conditions.
The chairman of the National League for Democracy (NLD), Aung Shwe, said she would remain on the isolated road in Dallah township unless she was allowed to travel on or forced to return home.
The party would maintain a vigil until the showdown with the junta ended, he said. "Our headquarters will be kept open daily until the war of endurance ends one way or another.
Although she was released from house arrest in 1995, Aung San Suu Kyi's movements are closely monitored by the military regime which has been in control of Burma in various guises for nearly four decades. Her last attempt to test the restrictions was in august 1998, when she spent 13 tense in a tense standoff on a bridge outside Rangoon until illness and dehydration forced her to return home.
A member of NLD's central committee, U Nyunt Wai, said the latest confrontation was aimed at putting pressure on the authorities to acknowledge the right to freedom of movement in Burma. "Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is ready to endure all sorts of discomfort for as long as it takes, "he said.