Gathering at the headquarters of her National League for Democracy, on the 17th anniversary of its landslide election victory, never accepted by the dictatorship, they set off for the Shwedagon pagoda to pray for her freedom. Their progress was blocked by around 100 pro-junta thugs, who hurled abuse at them and reportedly dragged at least one activist away as police looked on.
"They can't stop us from praying," said Min Ko Naing, a senior anti-government activist. "We will let them know they can't stop us."
Miss Suu Kyi, 61, yesterday began another year of house arrest - she has been detained for more than 11 of the last 17 years - after her confinement order was extended for another 12 months.
Barbed-wire barricades and baton-wielding police were deployed near the home of the world's only imprisoned Nobel laureate.
advertisement
Her renewed detention and multiple arrests of democracy activists in recent weeks show the generals' determination to maintain the status quo.
The march was the biggest protest in Rangoon since at least 2003, when Miss Suu Kyi's current period of house arrest, with no telephone and no visitors except her doctor, began.