Aung San Suu Kyi Honored in Ireland
June 18, 2012
by VOA News
Ireland welcomed Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi for a brief visit Monday, during which she is being awarded Amnesty International's highest human rights prize, the Ambassador of Conscience Award.
Aung San Suu Kyi arrived in Dublin from Norway, accompanied by rock singer and philanthropist Bono, as throngs of well-wishers and some of Irelands most distinguished rights activists, artists, poets, singers, and entertainers converged on Dublin's Canal Square for a concert honoring her.
While in Norway, Aung San Suu Kyi - detained under harsh military rule in her homeland for much of the past two decades - received a thunderous welcome in Oslo and the Nobel Peace Prize denied her in 1991 by her jailers.
From Ireland, the democracy icon will continue to London, where she will be reunited with her two grown children, and where she will deliver an address Wednesday at Oxford University and to the British parliament Thursday.
Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest in late 2010, as a period of political change began in Burma, also known as Myanmar, following half a century of military rule. A new, nominally civilian government was elected in November 2010 and took office four months later.
After her release, Aung San Suu Kyi resumed active leadership of the National League for Democracy, which she co-founded, and won election to an open seat in parliament in April.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
