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| Aung San Suu Kyi shakes hand with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon during a photo opportunity at United Nations Headquarters in New York [PHOTO: UNifeed] |
New York: Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi today (21 September) welcomed the
lifting of US sanctions on her country, as she met with UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon in New York as part of her trip to the United States.
Suu Kyi, who briefly worked at the United Nations in the
late 1960s/early 1970s, joined the Secretary-General for a press encounter at
UN headquarters.
Ban Ki-moon paid tribute to Suu Kyi and Myanmar's President
Thein Sein for "walking together down the path of reconciliation and
political stability and democracy and human rights".
He told Suu Kyi she was a "global symbol of human
rights" and he had "great expectations" of her leadership. He
vowed to work with her for the democratization of Myanmar "and many other
countries and peoples who may look to you, to your leadership and vision".
Asked by reporters if she was concerned about
"outshining" President Thein Sein, Suu Kyi said "if we all want
to achieve genuine democracy for Burma, we have to learn to work together and
not think about our impact as personalities".
President Thein Sein is scheduled to visit the United
Nations next week when he will address the UN General Assembly at its
high-level debate.
In response to a question on the lifting of US sanctions on
Myanmar, Suu Kyi said she was "happy" because it was time "the
Burmese people took responsibility for their democratization of the
country". She thanked the US Congress for what it had done over the years
to support her movement, but said that now, "we have to try to work on our
own, of course, with the continuing support and help of friends".
Asked for her take, as a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, on
today's International Day of Peace (21 September), she said "if you want
peace, you've got to try to do your best, in every way possible, to remove
hatred from the hearts of human beings".
Suu Kyi is the Chairperson and General Secretary of
Myanmar's National League for Democracy and widely admired for her
decades-long, non-violent struggle for human rights and democracy in Myanmar
(Burma). Until her release in 2010, she spent a total of 15 years under house
arrest. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
She has previously met the Secretary-General in her native
Myanmar, but this is her first visit to UN headquarters since her release. -UNifeed