Aung san Suu Kyi, Burma’s pro-democracy leader, says democracy will definitely come to Burma and has confirmed she will run for Parliament in forthcoming elections.
Speaking via teleconference at the Council of Foreign Relations in Washington Wednesday, Suu Kyi said she could not confirm the exact date of national elections but stated: “I will certainly run for the elections when they take place.”
The rare interview came as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived Burma, also known as Myanmar, on the first visit by a U.S. secretary of state in half a century.
The U.S. administration said Clinton’s visit to the South East Asian nation was to support the reforms implemented by Burmese military leaders in recent months. A process that perhaps started a year ago with the release of Suu Kyi herself after spending 15 or the last 20 years under house arrest.
The visit will also “underscore the U.S. commitment to a policy of principled engagement and direct dialogue as part of our dual-track approach,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement.
Suu Kyi welcomed the visit, and more engagement with the West, saying that it would encourage the reform process.
That process should include the release of political prisoners, she said, but before that rule of law must be established.
“There must be steps taken to ensure that the judiciary is clean and independent,” she said. “That is crucial.”
Other benchmarks for reform include a free press; acknowledgment of ethnic nationalities; and “the right of political parties to operate freely and independently.”
“Of course not all at the same time,” she said, “but they have to move in these general directions.”
Surprisingly cheerful, given it was late in the night in Burma and concerns remain about the regime’s commitment to reform, Suu Kyi said those tensions were inevitable.
Different opinions about engagement in the reform process were evident, not only within the military but also within the democracy movement, she said but added she was “not unduly worried.”
“In fact I find them, in some ways... healthy because it keeps us on our toes, to work hard, to make the reform process succeed,” she said.
After years of sanctions, foreign investment was welcome in Burma, she said but it was important investors spell out the sort of economic environment they needed before they committed, including the importance of rule of law.
She also hinted that Burma would be discerning about the types of investment, saying it must benefit both Burmese people and corporate interests.
“That is we would like them to think of fair and ethical investments,” she said in the webcast.
When asked about the past and how Burma’s rulers would be held to account for human rights atrocities committed during their 50-year rule, The Noble Peace Prize Laureate said there were two choices, retributive or restorative, and she would choose the latter.
The past was important to embrace in order to lay out the future, she explained, but accountability should “help heal the wounds of our society rather than open them up further.”
While she was emphatic in her belief that democracy would come to Burma she said she believed that it had to come through a process that would bring “greater harmony” and “greater peace” to Burmese people.
“I have never thought the way to move forward was through anger but through understanding ... and through the ability to negotiate with people who think quite differently from you.”
While there was no denying the challenges ahead she said the focus now was “to make sure nobody could put a stop to the reform.”
“We all have to cooperate to make sure that it goes forward,” she said.
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