Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to Visit the US in September

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will visit the US in September to accept the Global Citizens Award from Atlantic Council.  A representative from Atlantic Council had told VOA Burmese that Daw Suu will accept this award ” in person”. This will be the first time she will be coming to the US since working for the United Nations in the 1980’s.

In June, Daw Suu traveled across Europe for more than two weeks, meeting with state leaders and government officials. My editor, Khin Soe Win and I followed her around to different countries and cities as she accepted the prizes and made great speeches. You can watch more of Khin Soe Win’s videos on a later post.

Here are some of the pictures that we had taken in Europe while covering Daw Suu’s trip. This trip was personal for me as I had gotten to meet Burma’s ” heroine”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VOA was in Oslo, Norway to cover Daw Suu’s Nobel Peace Prize Speech:

Burmese Officials Indicate Suu Kyi Can Vote in Poll

– VOA News

AP photo: Burmese pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi

Burmese officials have added the name of imprisoned opposition leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi to a supplementary voters’ list, meaning she will be allowed to vote in elections on November 7.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate had been left off the list when it was first published on Monday.

That was in line with election rules that prohibit convicted prisoners from participating in the country’s first election in 20 years. But the decision prompted a wave of critical attention from international media.

A government official said Friday that Aung San Suu Kyi, whose current term of house arrest is due to expire later in November, will not be allowed to go outside on election day. But he suggested that authorities might take a ballot to her.

Aung San Suu Kyi still is prohibited from being a candidate. Her National League for Democracy party was effectively dissolved earlier this year after refusing to register for the elections, which it says are unfair.

The November 7 vote will elect 498 people to a national Parliament and another 664 will be spread among 14 regional legislatures.

Opposition parties say they have not been able to enter as many candidates as they want because of restrictive election laws and high registration fees.

The National Democratic Force, made up of former members of the NLD, says it will only be able to present about 140 candidates compared to the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, which will have candidates for all 1,162 seats.

Critics say the election is a sham and that the military shows little sign of giving up control.