Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Suu Kyi to give Nobel talk in Oslo June 16

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Tuesday, 22 May 2012 12:10 Mizzima News

Twenty-one years after she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Aung San Suu Kyi will make her acceptance speech in Oslo on June 16, as part of her first trip outside Burma in 24 years.

Suu Kyi, 66, will also visit Britain, where she will address a joint session of Parliament, and Ireland, where she will receive various honours.

Suu Kyi at opening ceremony of the NLD office in Insein Township in Rangoon on Monday, May 21, 2012. Photo: Mizzima / Lynn Bo Bo

“She will give the lecture on June 16 at 1 p.m. (1100 GMT) at the Oslo city hall,” said a Nobel committee spokesperson

While in Norway, she will meet Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere.

Current Nobel Peace Prize laureates, who concluded their 12th World Summit , held this year in Chicago pointed to Suu Kyi role in recent changes in Burma as an example of how non-violence can lead to dramatic changes.

Although she wasn’t physically present, Suu Kyi was very much on the minds of her fellow peace laureates. Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, said the group has often expressed sadness that Suu Kyi was not allowed to take part in their meetings.

“Now, Aung San Suu Kyi is released, and the situation in Burma is really improving,” the Dalai Lama said.

Suu Kyi has been given the rare honour of addressing the British Parliament even though she is not a head of state. She lived for years in Britain with her British husband, Miachel Aris, now deceased, who taught at Oxford. Their two sons live in Britain. She continued her education at St. Hugh's College, Oxford, obtaining a B.A. degree in philosophy, politics and economics in 1969. After graduating, she lived in New York City with a family friend and worked at the U.N. for three years, primarily on budget matters, writing daily to her future husband.

In 1972, Suu Kyi married Aris, a scholar of Tibetan culture. Subsequently, she earned a Ph.D. at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, in 1985.

She returned to her homeland in 1988 to visit her ailing mother. She was soon swept up into the country’s pro-democracy movement, was jailed, and she has not traveled outside Burma since then, fearing the military junta that held on to power until 2011 would not permit her to return.

Suu Kyi was detained by the military regime in 1990, and spent 15 of the next 21 years in detention until her release in November 2010. Her story was dramatized in the movie, “The Lady,” with Malaysian star Michelle Yeoh portraying Suu Kyi.

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