Aung San Suu Kyi opens up

Aung San Suu Kyi talks to Steve Finch in her office on Monday (Photo by: Tom Hunter)
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
Steve Finch
The Phnom Penh Post

In one of her first one-on-one interviews since her release from house arrest last Saturday, Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi said she was willing to enter a new period of compromise on points of contention with the country’s military government – notably economic sanctions – in a bid to finally achieve national reconciliation in the troubled country.

Suu Kyi said in Monday’s interview that the junta should be held to account for its crimes over the past 48 years of hard-line military rule but not within an overly punitive framework such as the Khmer Rouge Tribunal.

She opted instead for a more South African-style process of truth and reconciliation.

Although Suu Kyi is now free and Burma has held its first general elections for 20 years, the political divide remains as wide as ever between herself and junta chief Senior General Than Shwe.

Suu Kyi says she wants dialogue with the regime leader and, indeed, all political stakeholders in Burma. Whether the military will at last engage the Nobel Peace Prize winner in meaningful discussions to help end decades of disagreement is, of course, anyone’s guess.

We were watching the dramatic end to your 7 ½ years of detention from outside. What was going on inside your house at the time?
For the morning, I just carried on as usual but, of course, I knew that this was the day that I was supposed to be released. Things started moving at around one o’clock when they asked to come and see me. That’s when I knew that this was going to happen. The security officers came to see me at 1 o’clock and I told them what I wanted arranged, but they came at one o’clock only for an appointment, they did not come to let me out until 5 o’clock.