The motorcade in which National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi was travelling en route to Burma’s capital on Sunday was tailed by two vehicles in a deliberate act of disturbance, party sources said.
The leader of Burma’s main opposition party was travelling to Naypyidaw ahead of the 12th session of Parliament which began on Tuesday.
According to party sources, Suu Kyi’s escort was followed by two Honda cars on the journey from Rangoon toNaypyidaw. When the motorcade neared the capital, it was suddenly overtaken by a third vehicle, described as an Isuzu Trooper, almost causing the vehicle in which Suu Kyi was traveling to lose control.
“They were fully aware of the fact that they were being chased and took great care along the way,” an NLD member who requested anonymity told The Irrawaddy.
The incident occurred at a time of heightened political intrigue in Burma following the abrupt dismissal of parliamentary speaker Shwe Mann from the leadership of the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party last week.
The deposed party leader, who made no secret of his desire to become president, had cultivated ties with Suu Kyi—a relationship that is believed to have contributed to his ouster.
Speaking at the parliamentary complex in Naypyidaw on Tuesday, Suu Kyi described the manner in which Shwe Mann was stripped of his party role in a late night purge that involved state security forces as, “not what you expect in a working democracy.”
Suu Kyi’s motorcade was targeted in an infamous attack by a pro-junta mob in 2003 in Sagaing Division’s Depayin during which about 70 people died.
The alleged mastermind of that attack, ruling party lawmaker Aung Thaung, died last month at a hospital in Singapore.
