New York, Sep 22: Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said she hopes for signs of real changes in Myanmar very soon.
Speaking via satellite link to the Clinton Initiative Forum being held in New York on Wednesday, Suu Kyi said she had been conducting talks with government representatives and that “we are beginning to see the beginning of change.”
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate told the crowd that the “Arab Spring” reminded her of the democratic uprising in Myanmar in 1988.
“Our societies are very different, but in the end we are all human beings and I think we can all understand each other's hopes and fears and aspirations,” said Suu Kyi.
The forum, which was part of the annual Clinton Global Initiative meeting, was hosted by American Journalist Charlie Rose and South African activist Bishop Desmond Tutu on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
Tutu, a fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, told Suu Kyi he is “looking forward to coming to Burma” when “you are inaugurated as the head of government there. Quite seriously.”
“I have to be very very ambitious because I do want him to come,” she replied with a smile.
Former US President Bill Clinton joined Rose and Tutu at the end of the forum to offer a standing ovation to Suu Kyi.
Meanwhile, a senior U.S. official says winds of change are blowing through military-dominated Myanmar but the extent of reform remains unclear and its people still face repression.
Top diplomat for East Asia, Kurt Campbell, cited the recent meeting of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi with Myanmar's president, and the government's deliberations over new economic policies and the role of civil society.
He described those as tentative and reversible steps toward reform but ones that should not be dismissed out of hand. He urged Myanmar to release its political prisoners.
Campbell said a newly appointed U.S. special envoy had good meetings with the government and Suu Kyi this month. He said the Obama administration would continue its policy of engagement. AP
