The Burmese opposition leader, Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, sat in a mini-van on a country road yesterday doing nothing, but still managed to draw world attention to her campaign for democracy and human rights.
International pressure on the Burmese military regime was also heightened as a US lawmaker headed for Asia to try to secure the release of 18 foreign activists detained in Rangoon for distributing pro-democracy leaflets.
The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner, a senior member of her National League for Democracy (NLD) and two drivers were still in the vehicle on a small wooden bridge over a creek near Anyarsu, 32 km west of the capital by late afternoon.
The four were stopped there by police on Wednesday on their way to see supporters in Pathein, 190 km from Rangoon. The trip was a repeat of a visit in late July that led to a similar six-day stand-off, ended forcibly by government security men on July 29th.
The junta has asked Ms Suu Kyi and her companions to return to Rangoon, saying it is not safe on the road. But the NLD rejected this yesterday, saying "banning them from travelling on the pretext of security is not logical".
Ms Suu Kyi's latest trip has intensified pressure on the country's military rulers and drawn more attention to the NLD's demand that the government convene a parliament by August 21st of members elected at polls in May 1990.
The NLD swept those elections. But the military government ignored the result and has rejected demands for democracy.
Eight nations, including Japan and the United States, began a concerted action on Wednesday to press Burma to lift restrictions on Ms Suu Kyi and open a dialogue with the NLD.
New Jersey Republican Representative Mr Chris Smith, chairman of the US House SubCommittee on International Operations and Human Rights, has flown to Bangkok vowing to "make every effort" to get into Burma and help secure the release of 18 non-Burmese who have been arrested.
Burma has not said if it will prosecute the foreigners - six Americans, an Australian, three Thais, three Malaysians, three Indonesians and two Filipinos - or deport them. Government-run newspapers have accused them of being part of a plot to destabilise the country.
. Ethnic Karen rebels in eastern Burma yesterday said they would step up military activities unless the junta bowed to opposition demands for a parliament.
Speaking near the Thai border, the Karen National Union (KNU) leader, Gen Bo Mya, said that in order to avoid military action the junta needed to reach an agreement with the opposition.