Post date: Jun 20, 2012 7:9:9 AM
Asked on the perils of working alongside the establishment which held her under house arrest for 15 years Suu Kyi said:"I don't think of it as a perilous position, I think of it as a challenge. It is a challenge not just to me and my party but it is a challenge to the government as well, and of course to the people as well because they must play their part."
Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi says she has not made sacrifices, only choice, but that it may have been a sacrifice for her late husband and children.
OXFORD, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (JUNE 19, 2012) (ITN) - Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said her political position would present a challenge both to her and the country's military rulers on Tuesday (June 19), signalling her preparedness to lead the country towards democracy.
Myanmar's military rulers have freed the Oxford-educated daughter of Myanmar's assassinated independence hero from house arrest, ushering in an era of hope for change and allowing her to travel abroad for the first time in decades.
Suu Kyi has been greeted as a hero on her visit in Britain as part of a broader European tour. Given star treatment on her 67th birthday on Tuesday, she received a standing ovation when she addressed a packed auditorium at the London School of Economics at the start of her emotional comeback to Britain.
Suu Kyi said her reception in the West would send a signal to Myanmar of how much the 'world wants Burma to change in the right direction,' rather than as a challenge.
The pro-democracy leader warned that many bodies were interested in Myanmar only to develop business interests and encouraged 'democracy friendly' investment.
"A lot of people want to go into Burma perhaps not because they want to help Burma, but because they think there will be opportunities for them. This is especially true of business and I would like the people of Burma to be aware of it and the whole world to be aware of this, that what we want is what I call 'democracy friendly' investment and 'democracy friendly' aid, whether its development aid or humanitarian aid," she said.
The conflict in the Kachin hills near the Chinese border represents one of the last hurdles between Myanmar and a largely sanctions-free relationship with the West. Some believe Suu Kyi is the only figure who can unify one of Asia's most ethnically diverse countries and resolve the conflict in Kachin state.
Asked what her role would be in a region where she is perceived as figurehead, Suu Kyi replied:
"We are very concerned about the plight of the Kachin refugees... What we want to do is bring about reconciliation and condemnation is not the way to bring about an end to conflict. We have to first study what the roots of the conflict are and then address the necessary and relevant problems. I am very anxious that there should be independent monitoring of the situation there, so we can have a clearer picture of what is going on because of course the government says one thing and the Kachin organisation say another."
Now a Nobel peace laureate and an icon of non-violent political resistance, Suu Kyi, 67, left her two sons and husband
in Britain in 1988 to take up the fight for democracy in Myanmar as the military crushed pro-democracy protests and seized power.
She languished under house arrest for much of the next two decades, unable to spend time with her sons or be with her
husband before he died of cancer in 1999.
Suu Kyi said she did not view her actions in the last 21 years as a 'sacrifice' but admitted that it may have strained her family - her late husband, academic Michael Aris, and her two sons: Kim, now 35, and Alexander, now 39.
"I have said very often, again and again ad nauseum, that I don't look at what I have done as a sacrifice. It was a choice I made. It was a sacrifice for my husband and sons, especially for my sons, because my husband after all was adult, but the children were young. It must have mattered to them not to have both parents near them. I don't feel good about it, but on the other hand I think that in the end one decides what one's priorities are, and one lives with one's decisions," she said, adding:
"We have never spoken of forgiveness as such but we also have to remember that, although, my sons may not have had me near them their position was so much better than that of many young people in Burma."
On Wednesday, Suu Kyi was due to be presented with an honorary degree by Oxford University and to address the Oxford Union debating society. On Thursday she is due back in London to address both houses of Britain's parliament, a rare honour.