Suu Kyi calls for end to myanmar sanctions

Myanmar’s opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, called for the lifting of US sanctions against her country Tuesday, beginning an emotional visit to the US that punctuated the remarkable shift in relations with Myanmar over the past year.

Myanmar’s opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, called for the lifting of US sanctions against her country Tuesday, beginning an emotional visit to the US that punctuated the remarkable shift in relations with Myanmar over the past year.

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Suu Kyi, who until recently remained wary of removing the sanctions that long isolated her country, said that they had served their purpose politically, and she now urged the US to engage broadly with the country’s leaders to help build a new democracy.

“I do not think we should depend on US sanctions to keep up the momentum of our new democracy,” she said in remarks at the US Institute of Peace in Washington. “We have got to work at it ourselves. There are very many other ways in which the US can help us to achieve our democratic ends.”

For Suu Kyi, the visit amounted to a political homecoming to a country she had not visited since she worked at the United Nations from 1969 to 1971.

“We are not yet at the end of our struggle,” she said after being warmly applauded by current and former officials when she arrived at the institute, accompanied by secretary of state Hillary Clinton, “but we are getting there.”