Honorary degree for Burma laureate

News - World Written by Freya McClements/BBC News Tuesday, 07 July 2009 14:29

Amid the excited graduates and proud parents gathering at the University of Ulster's Magee campus for Tuesday's graduation ceremony, there is one high-profile guest who will not be there to accept her award.

Burmese pro-democracy campaigner and leader of the opposition Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained by the country's ruling military junta for 11 of the past 19 years.

Today the university is to award her with an honorary doctorate for services to human rights.

In Derry to accept it is fellow campaigner, Mra Raza Linn.

"I am very happy to received this award on behalf of the hero of the Burmese democracy movement.

"This is not only honouring Aung San Suu Kyi, but recognising the people who are suffering and sacrificing their lives to achieve democracy and human rights in Burma," she said.

She explained that conditions in the country were "very bad".

Mra Raza Linn

"The people are very poor, and the only people who are rich are the ruling military junta.

"Burma is a country full of resources - in my region there is plenty of oil and gas - but the people never have access to it or see the benefits of it.

"There is no building going on, and there are no schools for our children.

"The people want to live peacefully, but they cannot. The military junta use force against us, and they try to rape the minority women."

Mrs Linn was forced to flee the country in 1988 after she delivered the first pro-democracy speech in her home state of Rakhaing in western Burma.

"I called on my people to unite to face down the military junta and to work for freedom.

"The military ordered that I be killed, and I could not live in my country any more.

"I left in 1988, for Bangladesh, and I have lived there in exile ever since, working towards children's education, women's empowerment, and human rights.

"I work day and night on counteracting the military regime with non-violent methods.

"We are going the right way towards democracy.

"One day they must step down.

"It could happen any time."