Aung San Suu Kyi given freedom of Glasgow

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.2493351.0.Aung_San_Suu_Kyi_given_freedom_of_Glasgow.php


GERRY BRAIDEN
March 05 2009
Nobel Peace Prize winner and Burmese democracy campaigner Dr Aung San Suu Kyi was yesterday given the Freedom of the City of Glasgow.

Dr Suu Kyi remains under house arrest imposed by Burma's military regime, so the award was received by Dr Thuang Htun on her behalf at the ceremony at Glasgow City Chambers.

Dr Htun is a representative for United Nations Affairs for the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma. He also represents the democracy movement at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

advertisementThe symbolic gesture has echoes of the decision by the city in 1981 to bestow the Freedom of Glasgow on Nelson Mandela, while he was incarcerated on Robben Island by South Africa's apartheid regime. He collected the honour in person 12 years later.

Dr Htun said: "The fact Aung San Suu Kyi should be given the Freedom of the City of Glasgow, a city far from her home, at a time she is denied even basic freedoms in her own country, is a sharp reminder of the mind-numbing reality of today's Burma.

"Daw Aung San Suu Kyi remains the only Nobel Peace Prize winner currently incarcerated."

The Freedom of the City award was originally proposed by Amnesty International and Glasgow Women's Library.

Dr Suu Kyi is the daughter of Aung San, the wartime leader of Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League who was assassinated 1947. She has endured prolonged periods of detention and imprisonment over the past 20 years by Burma's oppressive regime.

She founded the National League for Democracy (NLD) in 1988 and was swiftly put under house arrest with the offer of freedom if she left Burma.

In 1990 the NLD won the general election decisively and once again Dr Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest. The election result was nullified by a military junta. This was also the year she was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.

The following year she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and donated the $1.3 million (£900,000) prize money to establish a health and education trust for the people of Burma.

Presenting the honour to Dr Htun, Glasgow's Lord Provost, Bob Winter, said: "It is with profound respect and admiration for Dr Aung San Suu Kyi's unflinching bravery that the Council has conferred upon her the Freedom of the City of Glasgow. This is tempered with frustration that she cannot be here today, in person.

"However, I am delighted that her loyal representative Dr Htun has been able to visit our city to accept the award in her absence. He goes with our very best wishes for Dr Suu Kyi, a shining beacon of hope in her country."

John Watson, Amnesty's International's Scottish programme director, said: "Aung San Suu Kyi is an inspiration to the people of Burma and to those around the world who applaud bravery and dignity in the face of oppression. Amnesty International congratulates Glasgow City Council on its decision to present her with its highest award"