LE TEMPS (Switzerland) CNN, BBC
GENEVA - Aung San Suu Kyi arrived in Europe for what some have seen as a sort of victory lap for democracy. The Burmese pro-democracy leader arrived on Wednesday at the annual conference of the U.N. International Labour Organization in Geneva.
Watch a clip of Suu Kyi at the International Labour Organization in the video below.
"The Lady" received a tremendous ovation from the 4,000 worker and employer representatives and the 185 government officials who are attending the event, the Swiss daily Le Temps reports.
According to CNN, Suu Kyi started her speech by declaring that she was not speaking as a representative of government, then grinned and added: "Not yet, anyway," triggering laughter from the audience.
In her address, she called for rule of law, an end to ethnic fighting and the formation of strong democratic institutions in Myanmar, while welcoming steps by the international community to reach out to her country, long isolated because of its military dictatorship, BBC News reports.
It’s Suu Kyi’s first visit to Europe since 1988, as she spent much of the past two decades under house arrest in Myanmar.
During the two-week tour, Suu Kyi is set to visit the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and Norway, where she will collect the Nobel Peace Prize she was awarded but unable to collect in 1991.
