Postscript : Dissident Grows More Famous ‘Behind Bars’ : * But Myanmar’s repressive government continues to vilify Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi.

At one point along University Road, in a leafy suburb of Yangon, coils of barbed wire--courtesy of the military--separate passersby from a high fence painted green.

Behind the fence, the nation’s most famous dissident, Aung San Suu Kyi, 46, lives alone, a prisoner in her own house. She was arrested in July, 1989, to neutralize her during popular pro-democracy demonstrations here in what was formerly called Burma.

Her name is vilified in official circles--more so since she won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize last October, calling for peaceful change when Yangon (formerly Rangoon) was engulfed in civil strife.

Officials denounce her for advocating a Western-style electoral democracy and for alleged association with leftists against the military junta, which seized power in September, 1988, when demonstrations spun out of control.

Her prestige among those opposed to the regime has grown while under house arrest. Her name helped the National League for Democracy (NLD) party that she co-founded sweep 80% of the 485 seats in May, 1990, National Assembly elections.

The junta then announced that her three-year arrest would be extended to 1994. The NLD’s 70 elected Parliament members were arrested, and many went underground to set up a parallel government in Karen state, an area on Myanmar’s eastern border with Thailand, in an alliance with Karen insurgents fighting for autonomy.

The junta claims she is treated with kid gloves, mainly because she carries an illustrious name. Her father Aung San is a revered hero who fought for Burma’s independence from Britain in 1948 and who wrote the country’s constitution.

The minister for information, Brig. Gen. Myo Thant, said: “She has a reserved place as Aung San’s daughter. So much leniency has been shown her.”

That includes allowing her to live in her own house and letting her have access to overseas newscasts from a shortwave radio and television. She also is permitted a piano, local newspapers, movie videos and even Jane Fonda exercise tapes.

Her British husband, Michael Aris, a scholar on Tibet, last saw her in December, 1989. In July, 1991, she stopped all communication with him and her two teen-age sons after she discovered that her letters and tapes were being photographed by her jailers and exploited as evidence of the government’s allegedly humane treatment.

In new sign of leniency, Myanmar state radio reported over the weekend that her husband and sons will be allowed to visit her. The report, which came as the regime freed 12 other political prisoners, provided no details.

When Suu Kyi’s uncle Aung Than, older brother of Aung San, died five months ago, she was allowed out for the first time to attend his funeral.

Two doctors and a dentist attend to her regularly. When her buck teeth got wired, it was sensational international news.

Government officials hardly have anything good to say about Suu Kyi. Typically, she is described in official circles as “very demanding and arrogant. . . . She thinks she’s superior to all Burmese.”

Ironically, she is accused of being un-Burmese.

In xenophobic Myanmar, a country closed to the outside while under socialist rule, being married to a foreigner is unacceptable. Myo Thant said the constitution Suu Kyi’s father wrote forbids allegiance to a foreign power. He said she gets mail from her family through the diplomatic pouch of the British Embassy in Yangon--hence her loyalty is suspect.

Pressure for Suu Kyi’s release mounted by the United States and the European Community appears only to have hardened the junta’s resolve to keep her.

Suu Kyi got involved in Burmese politics by accident. She returned to Yangon from Britain to look after her ailing mother and was swept up by the agitation for democracy. Public dissatisfaction with economic hardships under 26 years of failed socialism sparked the pro-democracy movement.

Protesters found in her the right name to rally around. Although she did not run in the 1990 elections, her prestige helped the National League for Democracy win overwhelmingly.

Her alliance was then a patchwork of leftists and rightists united in a common cause to bring down an authoritarian government.

No charges have been filed against her. The government said it had evidence that she was in league with the outlawed Communists to dismember the nation. She had harbored a “terrorist” in her house and met another to give advice, the government said.

Diplomatic analysts in Yangon said that putting her on trial would upset the status quo and it would allow her more contacts with supporters. The junta said it would allow her to go free provided she gives up politics, a demand she has rejected.

Vilification against Suu Kyi remains relentless. In the continuing purging of civil servants, a loyalty test is given. A questionnaire contains this query: “Should someone married to a foreigner be elected as head of state? If yes, what will be the situation of the country?”

But vilification has its limits. “She’s definitely well,” said Myo Thant, adding: “She has to be well. We can’t have it any other way.”