Suu Kyi to visit Europe
Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is to visit Britain and Norway in June on her first trip abroad in 24, a spokesman for her National League for Democracy party said.
The 66-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate has not left Burma since she returned from Britain to visit her ailing mother in 1988 because of fears she would not be allowed back in.
The announcement comes after last week’s visit to Burma by British Prime Minister David Cameron.
The daughter of national independence hero Aung San has spent 15 years under house arrest. For most of that time, she was separated from her husband Michael Aris and their two children, who still live abroad. In 1999, Suu Kyi refused to leave Burma to visit Mr Aris as he was dying because of concerns that the former ruling junta would not allow her back.
During a brief visit to Burma on Friday, Mr Cameron invited Suu Kyi to visit, saying it would be a sign of progress if she were able to leave and then return to carry out her duties as an MP.
Suu Kyi replied that “two years ago I would have said thank you for the invitation, but sorry. But now I am able to say perhaps, and that’s great progress.”
Her spokesman said the trip would include a trip to Oxford, where she attended university in the 1970s and raised her two children.
Ms Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her democratic struggle but was unable to collect the award in Oslo because she was under house arrest at the time.
She has previously told visiting Norwegian ministers that if she ever travels abroad, Norway would be her first destination.
