Suu Kyi to give Nobel Peace speech 21 years later
Associated Press, Oslo, Norway | World | Sat, June 16 2012, 2:55 PM
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi signs a book at the Nobel Institute after a meeting with the Norwegian Nobel Committee members in Oslo, Norway, Saturday. It's been 21 years, and Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is about to give her Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. (AP /Cathal McNaughton)It's been 21 years, and Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is about to give her Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech.
The 66-year-old champion of democracy is being feted this month in European capitals after spending most of the past two decades kept under house arrest by Myanmar's military-backed dictatorship.
Norwegian government leaders say they have eagerly awaited Saturday's speech at the Oslo City Hall since Suu Kyi won the world's highest diplomatic honor in 1991. Suu Kyi says she never doubted that she would travel one day to Oslo to give her honorific lecture.
She did receive the prize in 1991 and used its cash reward to create scholarship programs for Burmese youth. Her two British-based sons accepted the prize on her behalf in Oslo that year.
