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Free Aung San Suu Kyi

 
 
msolga
 
  1  
Reply Mon 23 Apr, 2012 07:27 am
@Sturgis,
Thank you for posting that, Sturgis.

Quote:
The National League for Democracy objects to the oath saying they must "safeguard the constitution" when in fact they want it amended to reduce the military's power.

Yes, "respect the constitution" implies that the constitution can be changed to a more democratic model ... a notion which, of course, the generals would not be too happy with. Still, they need Aung San Suu Kyi & the NLD in the parliament for their credibility. I'm hoping the NLD holds out for the changes they want. Why should the military be automatically granted 25% of the seats in parliament?
Personally I'm in agreement with the human rights organisations who believe the sanctions have been lifted prematurely.

dlowan
 
  1  
Reply Mon 23 Apr, 2012 08:28 am
@msolga,
I have been concerned re sanctions, too....but I do wonder if giving the generals little rewards for steps in the right direction is a useful strategy.

Still a very doubtful situation, I totally agree.
0 Replies
 
msolga
 
  1  
Reply Sat 16 Jun, 2012 05:36 am
Quote:
video: Suu Kyi to collect Nobel prize after 21 years
Updated June 16, 2012 15:12:02

Burmese Opposition Leader Aung San Suu Kyi will tonight collect the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to her 21 years ago.

ABC News

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-16/suu-kyis-prize/4074596
msolga
 
  1  
Reply Sat 16 Jun, 2012 05:39 pm
@msolga,
Finally, she was able to collect the peace prize in person.
What a terrific moment!
After 21 years, she deserves it even more than she did at the time of the award, but warned in her acceptance speech, that there was still much work to do done in Burma before it became a much more democratic country & that there was still bloodshed & conflict ... still political prisoners in that country who should not be forgotten .....

Quote:
Aung San Suu Kyi receives her Nobel Peace Prize
Updated June 17, 2012 06:51:39/ABC News

http://www.abc.net.au/news/image/4075158-3x2-700x467.jpg
Suu Kyi accepts Nobel Peace Prize Photo: Aung San Suu Kyi received a thunderous standing ovation as she accepted the award (Reuters: Lise Aserud)

Related Story: Suu Kyi calls for investment on landmark tour
Related Story: Australia lifts sanctions against Burma
Related Story: Suu Kyi warns China, US not to fight over Burma
Map: Norway

Twenty-one years after she was first awarded it, Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has finally received her Nobel Peace Prize.

Ms Suu Kyi spent much of the past two decades under political house arrest, before being finally released in 2010.

Introducing the democracy icon, the chairman of the Nobel Prize Committee, Thorbjorn Jagland, said the award stood for democracy and peaceful ethnic conciliation.

He said the Burmese opposition leader upheld those principles.


"It is you Aung San Suu Kyi who translated the committee's words into reality through your inspiring tenacity, sacrifice and firmness of principle," he said.

Ms Suu Kyi looked emotional as she received a thunderous standing ovation in the cavernous Oslo City Hall, packed with dignitaries, royals and Burmese exiles.

The Oxford University-educated daughter of General Aung San, Myanmar's assassinated independence hero, said that in 1991 the award made her feel part of the real world again at a time of intense isolation.

"The Nobel Peace Prize opened up a door in my heart," Ms Suu Kyi said.

"As the days and months went by and news of reactions to the award came over the airwaves, I began to understand the significance of the Nobel Prize.

"It had drawn me back into the wider human community. And what is more important, it had drawn the attention of the world to the struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma."


The opposition leader, who spent a total of 15 years under house arrest between 1989 and her release in late 2010, never left Burma even during brief periods of freedom after 1989, afraid the military would not let back in.

Her sons, Kim and Alexander had accepted the Nobel prize on her behalf in 1991, with her husband Michael Aris also attending the ceremony.

A year later Ms Suu Kyi announced she would use the $1.3 million prize money to establish a health and education trust for Burmese people.

And she was unable to be with Mr Aris, an Oxford academic, when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and died in Britain in 1999.

But despite the sweeping reforms that have accompanied her release, Ms Suu Kyi said that full political freedom in her country was still a long way off.

Although the government has signed ceasefires with scores of ethnic rebel groups, she pointed to continued bloodshed - conflict with the northern Kachin Independence Army and communal unrest between Buddhists and a Muslim minority.

"Absolute peace in our world is an unattainable goal," Ms Suu Kyi said in her acceptance speech.

"Hostilities have not ceased in the far north; to the west, communal violence resulting in arson and murder were taking place just several days before I started out the journey that has brought me here today."

Fifty people have been killed and scores wounded in the recent communal clashes in Rakhine state, state media said Saturday, as the United Nations warned of "immense hardship" faced by thousands displaced by rioting.

Ms Suu Kyi also advocated caution about transformation in Burma, whose quasi-civilian government continues to hold political prisoners.

"There still remain such prisoners in Burma. It is to be feared that because the best known detainees have been released, the remainder, the unknown ones, will be forgotten," she said.

Saying that "one prisoner of conscience is one too many", she urged the audience: "Please remember them and do whatever is possible to effect their earliest, unconditional release."
....<cont>


Aung San Suu Kyi receives her Nobel Peace Prize:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-16/aung-san-suu-kyi-receives-her-nobel-peace-prize/4074992
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