- The International Labor Organization pressures Myanmar over forced labor
- Aung San Suu Kyi will address a special sitting of the group's annual conference
- She arrives in Geneva late Wednesday, her first visit to Europe in more than two decades
- She will deliver a Nobel lecture Saturday, 21 years after winning Nobel Peace Prize
(CNN) -- The Nobel laureate and Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is set to address an international conference in Switzerland on Thursday, the first speech of her landmark visit to Europe.
Suu Kyi, who arrived in Geneva late Wednesday, will speak at the annual conference of the International Labor Organization, a U.N. agency. Worker and employer representatives, as well as government officials, will attend the event.
The organization has for years pressured Myanmar -- formerly known as Burma -- to eradicate forced labor, which it says is widespread in the country. On Wednesday, the conference voted to lift restrictions on Myanmar's participation in the organization's activities, ending 13 years of isolation.
Suu Kyi, who was recently elected to Myanmar's parliament, appeared "very happy and had a smile across her face" when she got off the plane in Geneva, said airport spokesman Bertrand Staempski. It is her first trip to Europe in more than two decades.
During her trip, she will finally collect the Nobel Peace Prize that she was awarded in 1991, but could not receive it at the time because she was under house arrest.
While in Europe, she is also scheduled to address both houses of the British Parliament, be the guest of honor at a concert in Dublin, Ireland, and celebrate her 67th birthday with family.
Refugees flock to see Aung San Suu Kyi 
Suu Kyi asks people to invest in Myanmar It is Suu Kyi's second trip abroad since she returned to Myanmar in 1988 to care for her dying mother. A military coup that September put Gen. Saw Maung in power, setting off anti-government demonstrations and a crackdown that left hundreds dead.
Suu Kyi -- whose husband, Michael Aris, remained in England -- became a leading activist and co-founder of an opposition group, the National League for Democracy. She was placed under house arrest for the first time the following July on charges of trying to divide the military. She spent much of the next two decades confined to her home by the ruling junta.
When her party won the 1990 general election in a landslide vote, the military rulers -- in power since 1962 -- refused to let the National League for Democracy serve, nullifying the results. Suu Kyi remained under house arrest.
In 1991, Suu Kyi won the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought and the Nobel Peace Prize, which cited her "nonviolent struggle for democracy and human rights." But she remained in detention.
In accepting the prize at the time on his mother's behalf, Alexander Aris said, "I personally believe that, by her own dedication and personal sacrifice, she has come to be a worthy symbol through whom the plight of all the people of Burma may be recognized."
The military rulers have since loosened their grip on power, allowing a series of democratic reforms. Her house arrest ended in 2010, and she was able to travel around the country during her party's election campaign this year.
Her parents: Gen. Aung San, who fought for Burma's independence from Britain and became Burma's first prime minister before being assassinated in 1947; Khin Kyi, a diplomat and ambassador to India
Husband: Michael Aris, a British Tibetan scholar, who died in 1999
Children: Kim and Alexander
Education: St. Hughes College, Oxford University
On Saturday, about 21 years after she was awarded the prize, Suu Kyi is expected to finally deliver her Nobel lecture at the Oslo City Hall in Norway.
Cities hosting her are well prepared for the fanfare.
In Dublin, a giant banner hangs from Liberty Hall ahead of her scheduled Monday arrival. There, she will be the special guest at a concert, "Electric Burma."
The event is organized by Art for Amnesty founder Bill Shipsey and features a range of entertainers and personalities, including Bono, Vanessa Redgrave, Bob Geldof, Angelique Kidjo and former Tiananmen Square student activist Wu'er Kaixi.
Amnesty International, which has campaigned for Suu Kyi and other political prisoners in Myanmar during the past two decades, will award Suu Kyi its highest honor, the Ambassador of Conscience Award. Past recipients include Nelson Mandela and Vaclav Havel.
Bono, who has long dedicated the song "Walk On" to Suu Kyi at U2 concerts to highlight her detention, will present the award. Tickets for the event sold out in 20 minutes.
After the concert, Dublin Mayor Andrew Montague and Amnesty will co-host another event. Suu Kyi, who received the Freedom of Dublin City 12 years ago while under house arrest, will sign the Roll of Honorary Freedom and address the crowd.
From Ireland, she plans to travel to Britain -- where she spent time as a student -- to celebrate her birthday Tuesday, before she addresses lawmakers at Westminster Hall in London on June 21, an honor usually reserved for heads of state.
Suu Kyi's trip will end in Paris, where she will be a guest of French President Francois Hollande from June 26 to 29 in honor of her "fight for democracy and the rights of man and to reaffirm France's will to support the political transition in Myanmar," according to the Elysee Palace.
CNN's Elizabeth Yuan and Jethro Mullen contributed to this report.
No comments:
Post a Comment