Suu Kyi to Leave Burma for First Time in 24 Years

Opposition leader will visit Britain, Norway in June
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 18, 2012 8:28 AM CDT
Suu Kyi to Leave Burma for First Time in 24 Years
Aung San Suu Kyi looks at Myanmar singers perform during her visit to Kawhmu township in Yangon, Myanmar, on New Year's Day, Tuesday, April 17, 2012.   (AP Photo/Khin Maung Win)

Aung San Suu Kyi hasn't left Burma in 24 years, having spent 15 of those in detention and opting to stay within its borders when she was not being held for fear that if she left she wouldn't be allowed to re-enter. Now the newly elected lawmaker will finally leave the country after having been invited to visit Norway and Britain in June, her party announced today. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate and opposition leader, 66, will even return to Oxford, where she was a university student in the 1970s, Reuters reports.

British Prime Minister David Cameron invited Suu Kyi to his country when they met Friday. "Two years ago I would have said thank you for the invitation, but sorry," she told him, adding that the fact she could even consider his invitation proves Burma has achieved "great progress." (More Aung San Suu Kyi stories.)

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