Suu Kyi takes stage with Bono
DUBLIN - Agence France-Presse
Irish singer Bono (R) hands Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi the Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience award in Dublin. AP photo
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi received a rock star welcome in Ireland on June 18, with U2 singer Bono among those performing at a concert to honor the Myanmar democracy icon after flying in with her on his private jet.Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi took to the stage with Bono to receive a prize from Amesty International at the rights group’s “Electric Burma” concert in a packed Dublin theatre.She was later given the freedom of the city of Dublin at a special ceremony and crowds joined in singing “Happy Birthday” as she was given a cake to mark her 67th birthday.
Bono thanked Suu Kyi for being at the concert, saying: “We know there are many other places you could be and we understand the signal your presence here sends out and we are humbled, we are grateful.”
Suu Kyi sat alongside Bono, who has long supported Suu Kyi’s freedom struggle and dedicated the song “Walk On” to her, after the pair travelled from Oslo, Norway, where they had co-hosted a peace forum. To receive this award is to remind me that 24 years ago I took on duties from which I shall never be relieved but you have given me the strength to carry out,” Suu Kyi said in reply.
“I have discovered how much more people care. I had not expected this. I had not known how much they cared. This has come as a surprise to me and a very moving one.” Suu Kyi received Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience Award, the rights group’s most prestigious prize. She won the award in 2009 but was under house arrest in Myanmar at the time so could not collect it.
Suu Kyi arrived Britain yesterday. She was scheduled to celebrate her birthday with a family reunion in the southern English town of Oxford, where she studied at the prestigious university and lived for several years with the late Michael Aris, her English husband and father of her two sons.