OSLO — It has taken more than two decades, countless lonely nights and imponderable hardships for Aung San Suu Kyi to reach the Oslo podium. But Myanmar’s celebrated former political prisoner is finally getting the chance to make her case for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Suu Kyi landed in the Norwegian capital and home for the world’s greatest diplomatic honor Friday, a day ahead of a speech that many thought she would never be permitted to make.
The 66-year-old democracy activist is expected today to thank the Nobel committee and the people of Norway for the prize she won in 1991 — the second year of her 21-year existence as an exile within her own homeland. Fifteen of those years she spent in prisons or confined to her dilapidated lakeside home, the rest fearful of traveling abroad lest Myanmar’s military dictators prevent her return.
Norwegian leaders and artists offered a heartfelt welcome for Suu Kyi as she arrived from Switzerland, her first stop on a planned two-week tour of Europe also taking in Ireland, Britain and France, her first visit to Europe since 1988.
Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg invited her to his official residence for talks, and the pair departed for a state-style dinner at the medieval Akurshus Castle overlooking the capital’s ship-filled harbor, fjord and islands against a backdrop of a slow-blooming Nordic sunset. Sharing the head table were King Harald and Queen Sonja.
“You have dedicated your life to the struggle for democracy in your country, and you are an inspiration for all of us,” Stoltenberg told Suu Kyi during a joint news conference. “The new political reality in Myanmar is remarkable. We have witnessed great changes in less than a year. Your presence here in Oslo is proof that your long fight for democracy and justice for your people is really paying off.”
He and Suu Kyi agreed that difficult, careful diplomacy could still be required with the military-backed Myanmar government of President Thein Sein, a retired general who rose to power last year, to cede power to Suu Kyi’s opposition National League for Democracy.
“We are certainly not at the end of the road, by no means; we are just starting out,” Suu Kyi said of her efforts to coax Myanmar’s military chiefs toward accepting democracy. “And this road is not going to be a straightforward, smooth one. There are going to be many twists and turns and obstacles, but we are going to have to negotiate these in the spirit of national reconciliation.”
