Suu Kyi visits UN headquarters, meets General Secretary

(Vatican Radio) Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has held talks in New York with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and says she's happy the United States has lifted sanctions against Myanmar's President, Thein Sein, and Parliament speaker Thura Shwe Mann. Listen to our report:

The discussions in New York focused on how the United Nations can assist Burma on its path towards democracy. After the meeting ended, she told reporters that she doesn't believe her visit to the United States will overshadow President Thein Sein, who will be at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York next week. “I don’t think we should think about this in terms of personalities,” she said. “I think we should think about it as a common goal.” Suu Kyi went on to say, “If we all want to achieve genuine democracy for Burma, we have to learn to work together and not think about our impact as personalities, either in our country or in the world at large.” Suu Kyi also spoke about her talks earlier in the week with US President Barack Obama, saying she was very happy with the meeting and with the decision to relax sanctions on her country. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon paid tribute to her leadership, and that of Burma's President who will be here himself next week. “[Suu Kyi] is now a global symbol of human rights,” said Ban, adding, “We have great expectations and hope that she will lead this path of reconciliation and greater participatory democracy and development of her country.” The daughter of the man who founded the modern Burmese army and negotiated Burma’s independence from Britain after World War II, Aung San Suu Kyi has been the leader of Burma’s democracy movement for more than two decades. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1991. On this trip to the United States, she personally received the Congressional Gold Medal, which she had been awarded in 2008.