SALON

Friday, Jun 15, 2012 11:45 AM UTC

Suu Kyi resumes European tour after brief illness

By

Topics: From the Wires,

Suu Kyi resumes European tour after brief illnessAung San Suu Kyi, Friedensnobelpreistraegerin und Parlamentsabgeordnete von Myanmar, Mitte, nach dem Besuch Besuch des Parlamentbetriebs im Nationalrat am Freitag, 15. Juni 2012 auf dem Bundslatz in Bern. (KEYSTONE/Lukas Lehmann) (Credit: Lukas Lehmann)

BERN, Switzerland (AP) — Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi resumed her European tour Friday after a brief illness prompted by exhaustion forced her to cancel a gala dinner the night before.

The Nobel peace laureate visited the Swiss parliament and met government officials in Bern, the capital, where enthusiastic crowds greeted her with cheers and bouquets of flowers.

Arriving at the Swiss parliament, Suu Kyi crossed the road to meet supporters of the human rights group Amnesty International, who waved banners reading “Thank you for your commitment” and “Go ahead for human rights.”

“We have been with you and we keep on being with you,” said one supporter, earning a warm thank-you from Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi received a standing ovation from Swiss lawmakers as she entered Parliament to witness a debate, mirroring the rock star reception that greeted her at the United Nations in Geneva on Thursday.

The icon of Myanmar’s democracy movement was released from junta-imposed house arrest in November 2010. In April she won a seat in the country’s national assembly.

The 66-year-old is visiting Switzerland, Norway, Britain, Ireland and France during her two-week visit, the first to Europe in 24 years. Her hectic schedule has concerned her physicians, who say Suu Kyi has no major health problems but has low blood pressure and gets motion sickness easily.

From Switzerland, Suu Kyi flies to Oslo, where on Saturday she will make a belated acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize that was awarded to her 21 years earlier.

More Catherine Gaschka.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments are not enabled for this story.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Paul Krugman’s right: Austerity kills. "In an economy where we’re all in the same boat, one person’s spending is another person’s income. So when the government cuts spending, it reduces people’s income, leading to less business, more unemployment, and a vicious spiral of slowing down the economy."
362 points363 points | 348 comments
vote
FBI reportedly joins Bachmann campaign finance probe
261 points262 points | 28 comments
vote
Jon Karl makes things worse: He regrets “inaccurate” Benghazi email but says his story based on it “still entirely stands.” Really. ABC News?
230 points231 points | 32 comments
vote
Austerity Kills: Brian McArdle, a 57-year-old man who had had two strokes and could barely walk, was found "fit for work" by a government subcontractor, and had his benefits stopped. He died the next day.
117 points118 points | 15 comments
vote
Paul Krugman’s right: Austerity kills -- radical cuts destroy economies and lives, and the honest numbers and economics keep proving it
119 points120 points | 12 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations