Radio France Internationale, RFI reported that just like in England last week, Suu Kyi is being accorded treatment usually reserved for Heads of State – in recognition of her relentless fight for democracy in her homeland. The rest of the visit entails visits to the French National Assembly, Senate and the Paris City Council where she is expected to be made an honorary citizen of Paris.
Suu Kyi will also meet Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe and members of the local Burmese community and her supporters in human-rights groups. Pierre Martial, the head of the France Aung San Suu Kyi Association that supported her in the country, said she would use the visit to urge French authorities and businesses to back the country's democratic transition.
According to the Associated Press, AP news agency, Suu Kyi’s visit puts accent on youth. The trip ends on Saturday June 29 with a lecture at the famous University of Sorbonne in Paris that is expected to be attended by over 1,000 students.
Observers say France that considers itself the cradle of human rights, is proud to host the woman who has become a world symbol of courage and hope for standing up to Burma’s military junta during 15 years of house arrest and imprisonment.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s first overseas trip in 24 years since returning home from Britain also took Suu Kyi to Switzerland, Norway, Ireland and Britain. The most memorable moments of the tour were the hand over of her Nobel Peace in Oslo on June 16. She was awarded the prize 21 years ago for her fight for human rights but could not receive it as a result of restrictions from her country’s military rulers. In Britain, she was received by Prime Minister David Cameron, the Royal Family and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Philosophy, PhD degree in Public Law by her alma mater, the University of Oxford.
The tour of Europe was however clouded by continued violence in western Burma where dozens of people have been killed and an estimated 90,000 people have fled clashes between Buddhist Rakhines and stateless Moslem Rohingya.
Suu Kyi is the daughter of Aung San, the martyred founder of modern Burma, now Myanmar. Aung San was assassinated in 1947, when Suu Kyi was 2 years old. After a coup d'état in 1962 that installed a military government, she left the country to study abroad. Upon her return to Burma in 1988, she became the voice for her long-suffering nation. For her courage, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 and thence became the world's most famous political prisoner — Myanmar's Mandela.
