Burmese government regrets no show

Aung San Suu Kyi: Protesting against travel restrictions?

The Burmese military government has described as regrettable the decision by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi not to attend the annual ceremony marking her father's assassination.

In a statement the government said it had expected her to attend Thursday's ceremony as she had done in recent years, and said it regretted her absence but respected her decision.

The nation regrets her absence and the government has nothing to say but to respect her decision

Senior official

Aung San Suu Kyi - who is under virtual house arrest in Rangoon - instead sent a delegation from her National League for Democracy (NLD), led by party secretary U Lwin.

Observers say the gesture fell short of a full snub to the military government, and appeared to be a protest against the travel restrictions imposed on her and other senior opposition leaders.

Secret talks

In a statement on Friday, a senior spokesman in military regime said: "Yes, we expected Aung San Suu Kyi to attend the Martyrs' Day ceremony.

"The nation regrets her absence and the government has nothing to say but to respect her decision."

Aung San Suu Kyi is rarely seen in public

Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been holding secret talks with the military since October, which political observers say appear to be progressing slowly.

"She's sending messages about her own situation as much as anything else," one diplomat said. "And it was interesting the choice was to let the NLD be represented by people who were actually free to travel.

"I think she's making a point there."

Speculation that Aung San Suu Kyi's absence was a sign the talks had stalled was a "storm in a teacup," another diplomat said.

Foreign diplomats who have had access to Aung San Suu Kyi said the talks appeared to have stalled earlier this year, but the NLD has nevertheless won some concessions.

The Burmese Government has released 151 NLD detainees and the party has been given permission to reopen 18 of its offices.

Eleven NLD activists, including four elected members of parliament and a prominent journalist, were released from jail on the eve of Martyr's Day.

The occasion commemorates the assassination in 1947 of Aung San, Burma's independence leader and its first prime minister.