Aung San Suu Kyi returned to Europe Wednesday, 24 years after she left to live in Burma. She's the icon of Myanmar's democracy
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movement, and Europeans want to know if the country's recent reforms mean the end of its dictatatorship. (June 13)
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[Location - Date:GENEVA -- AP VIDEO -- JUNE 13][Source:][VO:][INSERT: Wire Copy] Twenty-four years ago, Aung San Suu Kyi left Europe for what was then a military-controlled nation called Burma. She returned on Wednesday, the icon of Myanmar's democracy movement, to a continent eager to hear from her whether the country's recent reforms truly spell the end of its cruel dictatorship. Dressed in blue and wearing three white roses in her hair, Suu Kyi smiled and waved as she stepped out of the plane that landed in Geneva, Switzerland, late on Wednesday. She greeted officials and supporters, who received her on the tarmac amid tight security, before being taken by limousine to a nearby hotel for the night. Suu Kyi's trip is seen as a sign of gratitude to those governments and organisations that supported her peaceful struggle against Myanmar's generals over more than two decades, 15 years of which she spent under house arrest. On Thursday, she will visit the UN's European headquarters to address the annual meeting of the International Labour Organisation, whose campaign against slavery and child labour in Myanmar drew constant attention to the junta's abusive exploitation of its people. The ILO decided on Wednesday to reward Myanmar for reforms undertaken so far, lifting restrictions on its participation in the organisation's work that had been in place since 1999. From Switzerland, Suu Kyi flies to Oslo, where on Saturday she will make a belated acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize that was awarded to her 21 years earlier while she was detained by the military after leading a pro-democracy party to victory in Myanmar's 1990 elections. Also on her itinerary are France and Ireland, where she will be feted by pop band U2 and its activist frontman Bono at a concert hosted by the human rights group Amnesty International. The greatest attention is likely to be paid to her stopover in Britain next week. Suu Kyi studied and lived in Britain for years, and it is in Myanmar's former colonial power she left behind husband Michael Aris and their two sons, Alexander and Kim, when she traveled to her homeland in 1988 to nurse her ailing mother. Aris died of cancer in 1999, having been denied a visa to Myanmar. Suu Kyi had refused to leave the country, fearing she would be permanently exiled by a junta that saw the daughter of Myanmar's independence hero General Aung San as a threat to their power. The 66-year-old will address both houses of Britain's parliament during her visit and accept an honorary doctorate at Oxford. Suu Kyi's speeches will be closely watched by governments and businesses, less for the skillful political rhetoric attributed to her than for signs that it is now safe and proper to invest in Myanmar at a time when it is making tenuous democratic progress. Suu Kyi's scheduled return to Myanmar by the end of the month gets her back in time to attend the 4 July reconvening of parliament.The parliamentary session will be considering crucial legislation, including media regulation and foreign investment.(****END****) ANCHOR VOICE: -------------------------VIDEO PRODUCER: ned barker---------------------------VIDEO SOURCE: ap television-----------------------VIDEO APPROVAL: ned barker----------------------------VIDEO RESTRICTIONS: none----------------------------------MARKET EMBARGO (S): none--------------------------------SCRIPT/WIRE SOURCE: vt3580AP-APTN-0330: SWITZERLAND MYANMAR 2
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