Burmese democracy leader leaves capital

When the Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest last week, did she agree to give Burma's military government notice before leaving Rangoon? "Put it this way," she told The Independent, "we have agreed to talk to each other about our plans, so that there should be no inconvenience on either side."

Yesterday, Suu Kyi, the head of the National League for Democracy (NLD), put the new deal to the test when she ventured out of the capital for the first time, visiting party offices in Shwepyitha, a suburb some 30km (18 miles) to the north. She was greeted by a cheering, chanting, clapping crowd. "It all went smoothly," said U Lwin, the party secretary in Rangoon. "She had no problems with the authorities. The trip had already been arranged."

In the past, the regime has shown great fear of Suu Kyi's ability to galvanise crowds. They locked her in her home for the first time in 1989 after she had travelled the country demanding democratic reform, and kept her confined until 1995. In September 2000 they stopped her from travelling and put her under de facto house arrest for a further 19 months.

The daughter of Aung San, the hero of Burma's independence struggle, Suu Kyi became the leader of the independence movement during the uprising against the military dictatorship in 1988. The NLD won a crushing election victory in 1990, but the generals refused to hand over power.

Negotiations with the regime began soon after she was put under house arrest for the second time. Last week, a source with connections to the regime told The Independent that Suu Kyi and the generals had reached a secret agreement on power sharing.

On Thursday, Razali Ismail, the UN envoy who had brokered the talks, said in New York that the government was committed to making "the transition from military ... to civilian constitutional government".