Suu Kyi calls for 'non-violent revolution'

Suu Kyi calls for 'non-violent revolution'
Published: November 16, 2010

YANGON (AFP) - Newly freed democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi called on Monday for a “non-violent revolution” in Myanmar as she knuckled down to the task of rebuilding her weakened opposition movement.
Speaking at her party headquarters in Yangon, where she met with senior regional members for the first time in years, she told the BBC she was sure democracy would eventually come to her country, although she did not know when.
“I think we also have to try to make this thing happen... Velvet revolution sounds a little strange in the context of the military, but a non-violent revolution. Let’s put it that way,” the 65-year-old said.
Suu Kyi was freed from house arrest on Saturday, less than a week after a controversial election that cemented the junta’s decades-long grip on power but was widely criticised by democracy activists and Western leaders as a sham.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who has been locked up by Myanmar’s regime for 15 of the past 21 years, gave her first political speech in seven years on Sunday, appealing to thousands of her jubilant supporters for unity.
She said in her latest interview, published on the BBC website, that she would take any opportunity for talks with the ruling military junta, which she wanted to change rather than fall.
“I don’t want to see the military falling. I want to see the military rising to dignified heights of professionalism and true patriotism,” she said.
“I think it’s quite obvious what the people want; the people just want better lives based on security and on freedom.”
When asked whether a letter would be sent to Than Shwe to request a meeting, Nyan Win, a spokesman for her National League for Democracy (NLD) said: “I don’t know.”
“We have asked since the beginning for dialogue. She is always ready for dialogue,” he told AFP on Monday.
After having only limited contact with the outside world for most of the past two decades, Suu Kyi’s telephone line at her crumbling lakeside mansion will be restored “soon”, an unnamed Myanmar official told AFP.
Nyan Win said the mother-of-two is also hoping that her youngest son Kim Aris will be able travel to Yangon and join her on a visit to Shwedagon Pagoda, the site of Suu Kyi’s first political speech in 1988. http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/International/16-Nov-2010/Suu-Kyi-calls-for-nonviolent-revolution
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