Aung San Suu Kyi to travel to Norway and UK in June
Myanmar
Aung San Suu Kyi to travel to Norway and UK in June
Deutsche Presse Agentur April 18, 2012 5:33 pm
Photo : EPA
Yangon - Myanmar's Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyiplans to visit Oslo on her first overseas tour since 1988, officialssaid Wednesday.
Suu Kyi, 66, plans to travel to Norway in June, a spokesman forthe National League for Democracy (NLD) said.
"I’ve always said that the first country I would like to visitwould be Norway because of all they did for us when we were goingthrough difficult times," she said in an interview last month.
Norwegian Foreign Ministry spokesman Svein Michelsen saidWednesday the ministry "confirms plans of a visit in June." The visit could take place June 18-20, news agency NTB reported,citing former Norwegian prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, who headsof a human rights-oriented think tank.
Suu Kyi, who spent 15 of 21 years under house arrest before beingreleased in late 2010, won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, awarded by theNorwegian Nobel Committee.
"We never forget friends who stood by us during difficult times,"Suu Kyi was quoted as saying.
The Nobel Institute was planning an event for her includingspeeches and music at the Oslo City Hall, events manager SigridLangebrekke told dpa.
The hall is the venue for the peace prize ceremony, and was whereSuu Kyi’s late husband and sons accepted it on her behalf in 1991.
In Myanmar’s parliamentary by-elections on April 1, Suu Kyi andother members of the NLD won 43 out of 45 seats.
The party had won a landslide victory in the 1990 general election, but was blocked from taking power by the military junta.
Suu Kyi is also planning to travel to Britain after her visit to Norway, NLD spokesman Nyan Win said.
"She will also attend a meeting in Oxford," he said. She attended the University of Oxford as an undergraduate