Suu Kyi gets hero's welcome in the US

18 Sep 2012, 6:23 am   -   Source: AAP
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Suu Kyi, who spent most of the two decades until 2010 under house arrest, will be feted from Washington to university campuses as she holds nearly 100 events over three weeks in the country that has long rallied behind her cause. (AAP)

Suu Kyi, who spent most of the two decades until 2010 under house arrest, will be feted from Washington to university campuses as she holds nearly 100 events over three weeks in the country that has long rallied behind her cause. (AAP)

Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi has arrived in the United States, where she will enjoy a hero's welcome from Americans inspired by her story.

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Burma's democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi, has started on a sweeping and once-unimaginable tour of the United States, where she will enjoy a hero's welcome from Americans inspired by her story.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner arrived in Washington on Monday just as Burma released more political prisoners, in a new sign of her country's dramatic reforms ahead of a separate trip by President Thein Sein to the United States next week.

Suu Kyi, who spent most of the two decades until 2010 under house arrest, will be feted from Washington to university campuses as she holds nearly 100 events over three weeks in the country that has long rallied behind her cause.

The opposition leader and new member of parliament will meet on Tuesday with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the next day will head to the Capitol to receive the Congressional Gold Medal, the top honour bestowed by Congress.

President Barack Obama is widely expected to take a break from his re-election campaign to see Suu Kyi, although the White House has not commented on his plans.

Representative Joe Crowley, a long-time advocate on human rights in Burma and a leader of the effort to award Suu Kyi the Congressional Gold Medal, said lawmakers were "bursting" with excitement for her visit.

"In many respects, it's the culmination of an effort that we've been part of for some time now," Crowley told AFP.

"The notion to have her here in the US Capitol, in the Rotunda, receiving the highest award that Congress can give on the heels of her spending a decade and a half under house arrest is just remarkable," he said.

"It just reiterates again that by perseverance and fortitude, anything is possible," he said.

Crowley said, however, Burma was "not where we want to be" on democracy and human rights. The United States has repeatedly voiced concern over the treatment of minority groups, including Rohingya Muslims.

Amid a stream of bad news from the Middle East, the Obama administration has cautiously cast Burma as a success story. US officials opened talks with the then military junta in 2009 as part of Obama's policy of reaching out to unfriendly regimes.

As Suu Kyi was flying into Washington, Burma's state media announced the release of another 514 inmates. A spokesman for the democracy movement Generation 88 said at least 15 were political prisoners.

Suu Kyi's hectic schedule - which will also include visits to New York, Boston, Indiana, San Francisco and Los Angeles - has worried some of Suu Kyi's supporters. The 67-year-old fell ill in June during a punishing tour of Europe.

Suu Kyi last visited the United States before her party won 1990 elections, which led to her house arrest. She worked in New York at the United Nations headquarters from 1969 to 1971.

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