For the third straight Martyrs Day holiday, official newspapers conspicuously abandoned a tradition of publishing a special page on the life of General Aung San, Suu Kyi's father and hero of Myanmar's independence from Britain.

The official press -- the only kind allowed -- instead claimed that the people ``loathe'' Aung San's daughter, winner of the 1991 Nobel peace prize, as a traitor who want her driven out of the country.

Martyrs Day commemorates the assassination of Aung San, six ministers and two others who were machine-gunned during a cabinet meeting on July 19, 1947, in an attack orchestrated by renegade British intelligence officers.

In the only event of the year where Suu Kyi is allowed to take part in an official ceremonies, she arrived at the concrete martyrsmausoleum at the foot of Yangon's gilded Shwedagon Pagoda in a black sedan.

Dressed in a traditional black longyi, or sarong, a white jacket and black shawl, Suu Kyi, 54, bowed in front of her father's tomb and placed three baskets of purple and white orchids. She then knelt and paid respects in the Buddhist tradition.

Family members of the other eight martyrs paid separate respects at the government mausoleum. The heads of diplomatic missions, leaders of various organisations and members of the public also paid tribute.