The US will present its highest award to Myanmar’s democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi in September when she makes her first US trip in more than two decades, congressional aides said on Tuesday.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who was elected to parliament this year in a dramatic sign of Myanmar’s reforms, will travel to Washington in September to receive the Congressional Gold Medal, the aides said.
The medal is the top honor bestowed by the US Congress, with the ceremonies often bringing together the president and top lawmakers. Congress voted to give the medal to Aung San Suu Kyi in May 2008 when the prospect of her leaving Myanmar looked remote.
It will be the 67-year-old Aung San Suu Kyi’s first visit to the US since she was put under house arrest following her party’s victory in 1990 elections, the results of which the military junta refused to accept.
Aung San Suu Kyi did not travel abroad again until May this year when she went to Thailand. Last month, she made an extensive tour of Europe, where she belatedly accepted her Nobel Peace Prize, was feted in major capitals and admitted that she was exhausted.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton invited Aung San Suu Kyi to Washington when the top US diplomat paid a landmark visit to Myanmar in December.
State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said he had no announcement to make on Aung San Suu Kyi’s travels but told reporters: “We look forward to, at an appropriate date, welcoming Aung San Suu Kyi here.”
Aung San Suu Kyi will also visit New York on Sept. 21 to accept an award at a dinner of the Atlantic Council, said Taleen Ananian, a spokeswoman for the think-tank.
The dinner takes place in New York at the same time as the UN General Assembly, which each year brings world leaders to Manhattan. Aung San Suu Kyi lived in New York and worked at the UN secretariat from 1969 to 1971.
The Atlantic Council said it would present its “Global Citizen” awards to Aung San Suu Kyi and Japan’s Sadako Ogata, a former UN high commissioner for refugees.
“By honoring two such brave women — one of the most well-known political prisoners of our times and a courageous campaigner for human rights from Bosnia to Rwanda — we help define the notion of global citizenship even as we honor it,” Atlantic Council president and CEO Frederick Kempe said in a statement.
The think-tank will also present awards to former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, the 89-year-old former secretary of state and apostle of realpolitik, and music legend and humanitarian Quincy Jones.
Since taking office last year, Burmese President Thein Sein has surprised even many cynics by reaching out to Aung San Suu Kyi and ethnic minorities, and freeing political prisoners.
The reforms came after US President Barack Obama opened talks with Myanmar, offering an easing of sanctions in return for movement toward democracy.
Obama had tied his policy closely to Aung San Suu Kyi, who enjoys wide respect across the US political spectrum. However, Obama last week made a rare break with Aung San Suu Kyi by opening Myanmar to US investment — including in the oil and gas sector.
Aung San Suu Kyi had urged foreign companies to hold back on partnering with the Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise until it undertakes reforms.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia