|
BANGKOK – After 24 years in Myanmar, most of them spent under house arrest,Aung San Suu Kyi leaves Tuesday on an international tour to connectwith world leaders and to deliver a Nobel Peace Prize acceptancespeech more than two decades overdue. Bangkok's towering skyscrapers and sprawling urban lights will bethe opposition leader's first glimpse of the outside world, a starkcontrast to the sleepy city of Yangon where the former militaryregime kept her a prisoner in her own home for a total of 15 years.She was to arrive Tuesday night and spend several days in Thailand,where she'll speak Friday at the World Economic Forum on East Asia. In mid-June she'll head to Europe, with stops in Geneva and Oslo— to formally accept the Nobel Peace Prize she won 21 yearsago. In Dublin, she'll share a stage with U2 frontman Bono, astaunch Suu Kyi supporter, at a concert in her honor, according toIrish media. In England, she has been given the rare honor ofaddressing both houses of Parliament. The tour of two continents marks Suu Kyi's latest step in astunning trajectory from housewife to political prisoner toopposition leader in Parliament, as Myanmar opens to the outsideworld and sheds a half century of military rule. She hadn't left Myanmar since a year before the Berlin Wall camedown, in April 1988, when she flew to Myanmar to nurse her dyingmother. Until then she had led an international lifestyle, growing uppartly in India, where her mother was ambassador. She laterattended Oxford, worked for the United Nations in New York andBhutan and then married British academic Michael Aris and raisedtheir two sons in England. She returned to Myanmar just as an uprising erupted against themilitary regime. As daughter of Gen. Aung San, the country'sindependence hero, she was thrust into the forefront ofdemonstrations until the military brutally crushed the protests andlocked her under house arrest in 1989. Over the next two decades she became the world's most famouspolitical prisoner. During intermittent periods of freedom, shedeclined opportunities to go abroad for fear she would not beallowed to re-enter Myanmar. Suu Kyi's commitment to the cause came at high personal cost. Shestayed in Myanmar even as her husband in England was dying ofcancer in 1999. They last saw each other in 1995, after which thejunta denied Aris a visa. After her release from house arrest in November 2010, Suu Kyi hadan emotional reunion with her youngest son, Kim Aris, after adecade-long separation; the junta had given him a visa. The English leg of Suu Kyi's trip is bound to include some familytime. She will celebrate her 67th birthday on June 19 while inEngland, where Kim lives. Suu Kyi's aides have offered few details about her trip aside fromthe destinations, saying only that she will pack medicine formotion sickness. "She gets airsick and seasick very easily. She will have to takeher pills to prevent airsickness," said Win Htein, a seniorofficial from her National League for Democracy party. He said shewas typically stoic ahead of her travels: "She doesn't look tooexcited about it." Thailand was not part of the original itinerary but Suu Kyi decidedlast week to attend the economic forum. She has a Friday speakingslot that is bound to be the event's main attraction. Suu Kyi's appearance at the conference had threatened to upstagethat of Myanmar President Thein Sein, but he canceled over theweekend citing "urgent matters" at home, said Thai Foreign Ministryspokesman Thani Thongphakdi. He rescheduled his first officialvisit to Thailand for next week. Thein Sein took power last year from the military junta followingelections that were deemed unfair by international observers. Sincethen he has surprised much of the world by engineering sweepingreforms, though military leaders still have great control over thecountry. Since Suu Kyi's release, many international dignitaries havevisited her in Myanmar, including Secretary of State Hillary RodhamClinton in December and British Prime Minister David Cameron inApril. Cameron suggested she visit her "beloved Oxford" in June. Suu Kyi replied at the time: "Two years ago I would have said thankyou for the invitation, but sorry. But now I am able to sayperhaps, and that's great progress." (This version corrects that Suu Kyi has been on planes in recentyears, though she has not left Myanmar.). I am an expert from gift-packagingboxes.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Craft Paper Envelopes , Custom Magazine Printing, Paper Packing Boxes,and more.
Related Articles -
Craft Paper Envelopes, Custom Magazine Printing,
|
