Nobel laureate Suu Kyi says sanctions help nudge Myanmar toward democracy

AP, By The Canadian Press, March 1, 2012 ......

 

OTTAWA LAKE, Mich. - Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi says tough Canadian sanctions are helping her native Myanmar on its hard road to democracy.

Suu Kyi is speaking to Canadians for the first time through an Internet link between her Myanmar home, where she spent most of the last two decades under house arrest, and Carleton University.

She says Myanmar's new civilian leaders are feeling the economic pressure and are being pushed to reform because of international sanctions.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner has become a global symbol of peaceful resistance to oppression and is one of only five people to be granted honorary Canadian citizenship.

After a half-century under a military junta, Myanmar held elections last year and handed power to a civilian government.

Suu Kyi was also given more freedom and is now campaigning in a round of by-elections across Myanmar, once known as Burma.

http://news.yahoo.com/nobel-laureate-suu-kyi-says-sanctions-help-nudge-151322038.html