News & Articles on Burma-Sunday, 17 June 2012-UZL

News & Articles on Burma Sunday, 17 June 2012 ----------------------------------------- In Long-Overdue Speech, Dissident Says Nobel Opened Her Heart Suu Kyi is the female Gandhi Suu Kyi to get Freedom of Dublin Suu Kyi backs ethical UK investment Suu Kyi says Nobel award meant Burma was not forgotten Suu Kyi to make bittersweet return to Oxford Suu Kyi heads to Norway fjord town for talks ---------------------------------------- In Long-Overdue Speech, Dissident Says Nobel Opened Her Heart By STEVEN ERLANGER Published: June 16, 2012 OSLO When she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, while under house arrest in Myanmar, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said Saturday, she realized that the Burmese were not going to be forgotten. When the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded her the prize, she said in her Nobel lecture here on Saturday, 21 years later, it was recognition that the oppressed and the isolated in Burma were also a part of the world, they were recognizing the oneness of humanity. But it did not seem quite real, because in a sense I did not feel myself to be quite real at that time, she said. The Nobel Peace Prize opened up a door in my heart. She said the prize had made me real once again; it had drawn me back into the wider human community, and it had given the oppressed people of Burma, now Myanmar, and its dispersed refugees, new hope. To be forgotten, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi added, is to die a little. In a quiet, throaty voice on Saturday she asked the world not to forget other prisoners of conscience, both in Myanmar and around the world, other refugees, others in need, who may be suffering twice over, she said, from oppression and from the larger worlds compassion fatigue. It was a remarkable moment for the slight Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, who turns 67 next week and is now a member of Parliament and the leader of Myanmars opposition. She dressed in shades of purple and lavender, her hair adorned with flowers. It is a gesture she makes in honor of her father, Gen. Aung San, an independence hero of Burma, who was assassinated in 1947, when she was 2, but whom she remembers threading flowers through her hair. The audience in Oslos City Hall, which included the Norwegian royal family, listened raptly, applauding often, standing to clap when Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi entered the hall and when she finished her speech, which was at the same time modest, personal and touching, an appeal to find practical ways to reduce the inextinguishable suffering of the world. Suffering degrades, embitters and enrages, she said. War is not the only arena where peace is done to death. Absolute peace is an unattainable goal, she said. But it is one towards which we must continue to journey, our eyes fixed on it as a traveler in a desert fixes his eyes on the one guiding star that will lead him to salvation. She had thought much on the Buddhist idea of dukkha, or suffering, in her long years of isolation and house arrest, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi said. If suffering were an unavoidable part of our existence, we should try to alleviate it as far as possible in practical, earthly ways. One crucial avenue, she said, was simple kindness. Of the sweets of adversity, and let me say that those are not numerous, I have found the sweetest, the most precious of all, is the lesson I learned on the value of kindness, she said, with a rare shred of humor. Every kindness I received, small or big, convinced me that there could never be enough of it in the world. Kindness, she said, can change the lives of people. Her comments on Myanmar were careful but considered. She called for national reconciliation and cease-fire agreements between the government and ethnic nationality forces, which she said she hoped would lead to political settlements founded on the aspirations of the peoples, and the spirit of the nation. In my own country, she said, hostilities have not ceased in the far north, and to the west, communal violence has flared in the days before she left Myanmar. She spoke of the Burmese concept of peace, which she defined as the happiness arising from the cessation of factors that militate against the harmonious and the wholesome. The term, nyein-chan, translates literally, she said, as the beneficial coolness that comes when a fire is extinguished. She had never thought of winning prizes, she said. The prize we were working for was a free, secure and just society, she said. The honor lay in our endeavor. Her endurance against dictatorship and steadfastness to her principles has brought comparisons to Nelson Mandela. Her life has also been one of personal sacrifice. For her country, and for the legacy of her father, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi could be said to have given up her family: her beloved husband, Michael Aris, a professor of Tibetan and Himalayan Studies at Oxford, and her two children, Alexander and Kim, who grew up largely without her. Myanmars former military government persistently refused to grant them visas to visit her, even when Mr. Aris grew ill with prostate cancer, apparently in the hope that she would leave Myanmar herself to visit them. She refused to do so, fearing with reason that the government would not allow her back into the country. After Ms. Aung San Suu Kyis initial house arrest in 1989, Mr. Aris was allowed to visit only five times, the last time during Christmas in 1995. He died in March 1999, on his 53rd birthday; to the end, he supported her decision to remain in Myanmar. She had returned to Myanmar from Britain in March 1988 to nurse her ill mother, Daw Khin Kyi, and became caught up in the swirling protests against years of eccentric autocracy and military rule. In January 1989, just after her mothers funeral, she and her husband sat for a rare interview at her mothers house in Rangoon, now Yangon, as their children ran about the rooms, with their faded colonial elegance. You know, when I married Michael, she said, I made him promise that if there was ever a time that I had to go back to my country, he would not stand in my way. And he promised. Mr. Aris said: Thats true. She made me promise. She said then that she understood how much her stature depended on her fathers aura. I dont pretend that I dont owe my position in Burmese politics to my father, at least at the beginning, she said. Its time to look at what people do. At another moment, she said: Really, Im doing this for my father. Im quite happy they see me as my fathers daughter. My only concern is that I prove worthy of him. Once fate intervened, she chose the life she has lived, and there is little doubt that she has proved herself fierce, loyal and worthy, both to her father and to her people. Thorbjorn Jagland, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, praised her and thanked her for your fearlessness, your tenacity and your strength. He said: Your life is a message to all of us. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/17/world/asia/aung-san-suu-kyi-accepts-nobel-peace-prize.html?_r=1 -------------------------------------- Suu Kyi is the female Gandhi Priyanka Jain, Hindustan Times June 17, 2012 First Published: 14:05 IST(17/6/2012) Last Updated: 14:42 IST(17/6/2012) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh shakes hands with Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of National League for Democracy (NLD), during a meeting in Yangon, Myanmar. PTI Photo by Kamal Kishore Luc Bessons film The Lady premiered at IFFI 2011 in Goa but the fate of its Indian release was hanging in the balance. However since Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Burmas national heroine Aung San Suu Kyi recently, the film may finally see a release in India. Michelle Yeoh who is essaying the role of the pro-democratic Burma leader describes her meeting with Suu Kyi as special. She says, She practices all the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and even Nelson Mandela. She is their female form, fighting a similar battle for her country as they did for theirs. Suu Kyi actually studied and lived in India for a brief period and is deeply familiar with Indian culture. The film was written over a period of three years after conducting interviews with key figures in Suu Kyis entourage. The Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon actor adds, For me, I was just meeting my hero. Because when you have learnt so much about a person you want to see for yourself if they are really like what you are studying and embodying. You feel such peace and warmth when you find out that she is like that, someone who is so selfless and generous in spirit, compassionate and wise but at the same time quick to laugh. It was a remarkable and memorable moment for me. Luc Bessons film focuses on Suu Kyis non-violent protests and the fasts she observed for the freedom of her country, much like Gandhi. The actor-director duo even arranged a screening for the Dalai Lama. Michelle says, Suu Kyi always says, Use your freedom to promote ours. Thats what we did. I know that every time an artist can talk about Burma, about her, or about the fight, she is happy. http://www.hindustantimes.com/Entertainment/Hollywood/Suu-Kyi-is-the-female-Gandhi/Article1-873751.aspx ---------------------------------------- Suu Kyi to get Freedom of Dublin Sunday, June 17, 2012 - 02:49 PM Burmas pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will jet in to Dublin tomorrow for a six-hour flying visit to the Irish capital. Thousands of supporters are expected to turn out to honour the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who will deliver an open-air address and receive the freedom of Dublin city 12 years after she was awarded the accolade. Rock star Bono and fellow aid campaigner Bob Geldof will join her in a special tribute concert, where Ms Suu Kyi will be presented with Amnesty Internationals prestigious Ambassador of Conscience award. Colm OGorman, executive director in Amnesty International Ireland, said thousands of people from across Ireland and around the world will have an opportunity to hear a woman who has inspired millions. Every one of us who applauds her onto the stage on Monday night, proudly looking on as the Lord Mayor of Dublin grants her the Freedom of the City, is also sending a message of hope and solidarity to her supporters in Myanmar, said Mr OGorman. We will be telling them that we stood with Aung San Suu Kyi when she was in prison, that she inspires us much as she inspires them. Now that she is free, we will continue to stand with her and to support the struggle for justice, freedom and human rights in Myanmar. Ms Suu Kyi was under house arrest or in prison for 15 of the last 24 years until her release last November. The human rights campaigner, who last night accepted a Nobel Peace Prize she won while under house arrest 21 years ago, is visiting Europe for the first time since 1988. She will fly in from the Norwegian capital of Oslo and will be met by Foreign Affairs Minister and Tᮡiste Eamon Gilmore at Dublin airport. Ms Suu Kyi will meet Irish President Michael D Higgins before she attends a special concert at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre in her honour where she will also be conferred with an honorary degree from Trinity College Dublin. Bono, Geldof, musician Damien Rice, the Riverdance ensemble and actress Vanessa Redgrave will be among the leading figures from the world of arts and music celebrating the event. When the Freedom of the City was conferred on Ms Suu Kyi on March 18 2000, the award was accepted on her behalf by her son Kim. The then Lord Mayor, Mary Freehill, will tomorrow present a scroll commemorating the visit to the campaigner, who will sign the Roll of Honorary Freedom of the City. I am delighted that Aung San Suu Kyi is finally free to come to Dublin in person to complete the ceremony which began in March 2000, added Cllr Freehill. Members of the Karen community, Myanmars largest ethnic minority, will perform a short piece of traditional Karen music after the public address and a special birthday cake will be given to Ms Suu Kyi, who celebrates her 67th birthday on Tuesday. Dublin Lord Mayor Andrew Montague said it was a great honour that Ms Suu Kyi is visiting Dublin. She is one of my heroes for leading a peaceful campaign to bring democracy to Burma at great personal cost, he said. For over 15 years Aung San Suu Kyi has been separated from her family and held under house arrest as a result of her campaign. I am proud to welcome her to Dublin and proud to invite her to sign the Roll of Honorary Freedom of the City. http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/suu-kyi-to-get-freedom-of-dublin-555686.html ---------------------------------------- Suu Kyi backs ethical UK investment (UKPA) Aung San Suu Kyi said she would welcome "ethical, responsible investment" from British businesses as she prepared to visit the UK for the first time since being released from more than 20 years of house arrest. Ms Suu Kyi said she was looking forward to returning to Britain, where she lived, studied and married before returning and launching her long-fought campaign in Burma. And while insisting on a need for "healthy scepticism" about reforms and progress in Burma, Ms Suu Kyi said the time was nearing when foreign investment could be appropriate. Burma has significant energy reserves and Ms Suu Kyi was asked whether it would be appropriate for British firms such as BP or Shell to work in the country. She said: "It depends on the way in which they do it. I have spoken about the democracy-friendly development growth, to invest in a way that will promote democracy in Burma, that will empower the people, that will bring in new players to the economic arena - not just the same old people who have been enjoying a privileged situation for years. "Transparency is the key. Without transparency there can be no accountability and unless there is transparency we can never tell whether these investments are going to benefit the people or the already privileged few. "I would be happy to see ethical, responsible (British) investment." The four-day visit to the UK is part of a five-nation European tour, which saw the former political prisoner visit Norway to collect her Nobel Prize 21 years after it was awarded. Speaking to the BBC's Andrew Marr programme, Ms Suu Kyi said she was looking forward her UK visit, which will include a speech to Parliamentarians in Westminster Hall and a visit to Oxford where she lived in the 1980s. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5gOISaQbQ0EbWjtGEmhfmATPwL2xA?docId=N0332361339924478781A ------------------------------------ Burma Suu Kyi says Nobel award meant Burma was not forgotten Burma - Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 had made her feel "real again" and reassured her that Burma's plight had not been forgotten. Speaking in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, she said Western support had contributed to changes in Burma. Ms Aung San Suu Kyi spent much of the past 24 years under house arrest in Burma. She was freed in late 2010. She did not travel to collect the prize fearing she would not be allowed back. Her visit to Oslo is part of a tour of Europe, her first since 1988, which she began in Geneva, at the UN's International Labour Organisation. On Saturday, Suu Kyi will meet members of the Burmese community who are exiled and now live in Norway. http://www.portalangop.co.ao/motix/en_us/noticias/internacional/2012/5/24/Suu-Kyi-says-Nobel-award-meant-Burma-was-not-forgotten,925bcb81-2485-4b40-a5dc-e95162bc512b.html ---------------------------------------- Suu Kyi to make bittersweet return to Oxford By Jill Lawless Associated Press / June 17, 2012 LONDONBefore Aung San Suu Kyi was a prisoner of conscience and a political icon, she inhabited a world of children's birthday parties, university libraries and bicycle-filled English suburbs. The leader of Myanmar's democracy movement spent years in the university city of Oxford with her English academic husband and their two sons. She left one day in 1988 to care for her sick mother, thinking she would be gone for weeks. Almost a quarter of a century later, she is about to return for the first time. On Monday, Suu Kyi begins a weeklong trip to Britain as part of a European tour. Her itinerary includes talks with Prime Minister David Cameron, an address to Parliament and a meeting with Prince Charles. But the most bittersweet moment will likely be her homecoming to Oxford, where on Wednesday the 66-year-old will finally accept the honorary doctorate she was awarded in 1993, while she was under house arrest in Yangon. Oxford looks much the same as when she left, a traffic-clogged jumble of spires and bridges and Gothic college buildings. But her children are grown and her beloved husband, Michael Aris, is dead. "I'm sure within herself it'll be an extremely emotional moment," said Peter Popham, author of "The Lady and the Peacock," a biography of Suu Kyi. "When she left in March 1988 she expected to be away for a while, possibly a few months, but certainly not 24 years." Suu Kyi arrived in Oxford in 1964 from a background marked by both privilege and tragedy. She had been educated at a convent school in New Delhi, where her mother was ambassador for the country then known as Burma. Her father, Gen. Aung San, a political leader who negotiated Burma's independence from Britain, had been assassinated by political rivals in 1947, when she was 2. She studied politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford University's then-women-only St. Hugh's College, a handsome collection of red brick Edwardian buildings set in extensive gardens. Student friend Ann Pasternak Slater recalled a striking figure whose "firm moral convictions and inherited social grace contrasted sharply with the tatty dress and careless manners, vague liberalism and uncertain sexual morality" of her English counterparts. Suu Kyi was not a party animal -- she tasted alcohol just once, to see what it was like -- but did embrace other Oxford traditions. In the essay collection "Freedom From Fear," Pasternak Slater described her learning to operate a punt -- Oxford's characteristic flat-bottomed boats -- and to ride a bicycle, swapping her traditional Burmese long skirt, the lungi, for a pair of white jeans. While at Oxford, Suu Kyi met Aris, a Himalayan scholar who later served as tutor to the children of the king of Bhutan. They married in 1972 -- on condition that if her country ever needed her, she would go. Neither imagined how high the price would be. "She thought she might go to Burma one day to set up a mobile library once the kids were grown and Michael was retired," said Rebecca Frayn, screenwriter of "The Lady," a recent feature film about Suu Kyi. "They had a little dream that he would grow orchids." The couple lived in Bhutan and London, then settled in Oxford when Aris got an academic post. Suu Kyi looked after sons Alexander and Kim and pursued doctoral studies. Frayn said the future Nobel peace laureate embraced her role as academic wife and "utterly devoted mother." "She was famed for her exquisitely organized birthday parties," Frayn said. "The common thing is that she did whatever she did to the Nth degree." In March 1988, Suu Kyi returned to Myanmar to nurse her dying mother, and found herself on the front line of mass pro-democracy protests that erupted soon after. The hospital where her mother was being treated was inundated with injured demonstrators. As the daughter of a national hero, Suu Kyi was an instant emblem of the movement. She embraced her destiny and helped form the National League for Democracy -- with the support of her far-off husband. "From the outset, they knew it was a tough decision to go into politics," Popham said. "But I don't think any of them had an idea of how hard it was going to be. Michael thought the regime would collapse within months and they would be reunited by Christmas 1988." In fact, Aris saw his wife only a handful of times after she left Oxford. The NLD won elections in 1990, but was kept from power by the military junta. Suu Kyi spent much of the next 20 years under house arrest, finally being released in November 2010. In April, she won a seat in the country's national assembly, and is campaigning for further reform. The couple's predicament took a cruel twist in 1997, when Aris was diagnosed with what turned out to be terminal prostate cancer. The junta would have allowed Suu Kyi to leave Myanmar to visit him -- but she feared she would not be allowed to return. He applied 30 times for visas to visit her; all were rejected. "He was adamant she shouldn't come back," Frayn said. "He was convinced (his visa) would be granted and he would die in her arms." Aris died in Oxford on his 53rd birthday in 1999. He had not seen his wife in more than three years. Frayn said the years of separation had left a "complex emotional legacy" for Suu Kyi's sons, now in their 30s. Kim Aris lives in Oxford and has visited his mother several times since her release from house arrest. Elder brother Alexander -- who at age 18 delivered the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize address on behalf of his mother -- lives in a Buddhist community in Portland, Oregon. Neither has given interviews to the media. Suu Kyi, too, rarely speaks of her emotions -- a reflection, Frayn said, both of her Buddhist faith and of her political convictions. "She is surrounded in the National League for Democracy by people who spent many years in prison, and in some senses her context is that she got off lightly compared to a lot of her close political colleagues," Frayn said. "She has said that this is in a sense her cross to bear, the long-term separation from her sons. "A journalist once said to her that her story was like a Greek tragedy. She absolutely rebuked him and said: I made a choice." http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2012/06/17/suu_kyi_to_make_bittersweet_return_to_oxford/?page=full -------------------------------------- Suu Kyi heads to Norway fjord town for talks Posted on 17 June 2012 - 05:19pm Last updated on 17 June 2012 - 07:00pm The audience watches as Nobel peace prize laureate, Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi gives her Nobel lecture in Oslo on June 16, 2012. Suu Kyi will visit Norway, Britain, France and Ireland on her more than two-week tour, which will include a speech in Oslo to formally accept the Nobel Peace Prize that thrust her into the global limelight two decades ago. AFP OSLO (June 17, 2012): Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi was to head Sunday to the Norwegian fjords for talks on her country's future after wowing crowds in Oslo where she gave her long-overdue Nobel speech. The veteran activist -- in Europe for the first time in a quarter-century after enduring years of house arrest for her freedom struggle -- has been feted since the start of her five-nation tour in Geneva on Wednesday. Her visit has been hailed all the more because of the rapid change in her home country also known as Burma, where a former military junta that ruled the country with an iron fist for decades has pledged to follow a path to democracy. On Sunday, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate will visit the Rafto Foundation, a human rights group based in the coastal city of Bergen that honoured her with its annual award in 1990 and made her its patron in 1999. Her prize "for her peaceful struggle under the military dictatorship," like the Nobel the following year, was accepted by her family, as Suu Kyi feared she would not be allowed to return to Myanmar if she left the country. "Her visit means very, very much to us," said the foundation's executive director, Therese Jebsen, speaking by phone from Bergen about Suu Kyi, the Oxford-educated daughter of the country's independence hero. "It's actually the greatest thing that's happened in the history of the Rafto Foundation," Jebsen said. "She has been part of our history for 22 years. She has been one of our most important sources of inspiration." Suu Kyi was to hold morning talks with Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store before flying to Bergen, a picturesque city with multi-coloured rows of wooden houses on the harbourside that is known as the Gateway to the Fjords. Representatives of non-government groups and business schools will meet with Suu Kyi at the Rafto Foundation to discuss ways to support development in her impoverished country as it reopens to the world, Jebsen said. A topic of special concern will be how Myanmar goes about managing its vast natural resources, especially oil and gas, in a way that benefits the people. Myanmar's political reforms -- from allowing Suu Kyi's party into mainstream politics to freeing political prisoners -- have led the United States, the European Union and others to roll back or suspend long-standing sanctions. Some now fear a free-for-all business bonanza in the country, and Suu Kyi herself has stressed that ethical, transparent and "human-rights friendly, democracy-friendly investment is what we're looking for." Jebsen said that Norway, a rare liberal democracy among the world's top oil-producing countries, may have lessons and technical advice to help Myanmar "manage the resources in a democratic way." In Oslo, asked about her country's broader political reforms, she told the BBC: "I have been speaking out against what I call reckless optimism and calling for a bit of healthy skepticism." After the closed-door talks at the Rafto House for Human Rights, she will meet the city's Burmese exile community at a hotel, then address a public meeting in the city centre before flying back to Oslo. After more meetings near the Norwegian capital, Suu Kyi is set to receive a rock star's welcome Monday in Dublin at a concert by Irish singer and global rights campaigner Bono. Afterward some 5,000 people are expected to sing "happy birthday" to Suu Kyi, who turns 67 on Tuesday, at a public event. She then travels to Britain, which was her long-time home until 24 years ago, before wrapping up her tour in France. AFP http://www.thesundaily.my/news/409691

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