Oxford University to honour Suu Kyi

BRITAIN: Aung San Suu Kyi was to be awarded an honorary doctorate by Oxford University on Wednesday in the city where she studied and brought up the family she would later leave behind. The Myanmar democracy icon will be presented with an honorary doctorate in civil law at the prestigious seat of learning where she studied politics, philosophy and economics in the mid-1960s.

She will also deliver a speech in the grand surroundings of the university's 17th century Sheldonian Theatre.

The ceremony is one of the highlights of her week-long trip to Britain, part of her first trip to Europe since 1988.

On Thursday she will make an address to both houses of the British parliament -- a rare honour bestowed on only four foreign dignitaries since World War II.

In an interview with BBC TV on Wednesday, she confirmed her desire to lead the people of Myanmar “if I can lead them in the right way”.

She rejected the suggestion that her release from more than two decades of house arrest in 2010 had been a “confidence trick” aimed at getting sanctions on the country lifted.

She warned foreign companies rushing to invest in Myanmar since the military-backed civilian government began to implement reforms that they would be closely watched.

They would be exposed if they did not behave in a “democracy-friendly, human rights-friendly” way and follow “best practices”, she warned. “And if they are not such companies and if they are doing business with cronies and with those who will use their new economic powers to consolidate the grip of the government, then I think we'll have to expose them,” she added.

AFP