Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, UN Headquarters, 21 September 2012
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, It is a great pleasure and profound honour for me to welcome Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. When I was visiting Myanmar a few months ago, she welcomed me very kindly to her home, residence, in Yangon. At that time we discussed the possibility of her visiting the United Nations. I invited her to visit the United Nations. In fact, she was staff of the United Nations, and I would like to welcome her home. Her commitment for peace and security and human rights is well-known worldwide. She is now a global symbol of human rights. Now, she is returning, not only as General Secretary of the NLD [National League for Democracy], but now as a member of the Myanmar Parliament, and also in her capacity as Chairperson of the Committee of the Rule of Law and Stability. This is quite important, and in that regard, she can continue to help the Myanmar people and many other people around the world who may be experiencing the same hardships and abuse of human rights like herself and the Myanmar people have been enduring. We have great expectations and hope that she will lead this path of reconciliation and greater participatory democracy and development of her country, together with President Thein Sein of Myanmar. In that regard, I pay my great tribute to President Thein Sein and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. They have been walking together down the path of reconciliation and political stability and democracy and human rights, and I really count on her continuing support. I am also grateful for her participation in the global Education First initiative, which I am going to [launch] on Wednesday, September 26th. We discussed a lot on how the United Nations and the Myanmar Government and herself, as now a political leader, can work together for democraticization. And as you may remember, when I was visiting [Myanmar], I had a good discussion with President Thein Sein and we agreed on six points to help the Myanmar Government. All of these are on track, including normalization of the United Nations’ activities – UNDP [United Nations Development Programme], the UN Country Team there – and helping the first-ever, in 30 years, a census of population and housing, and also helping this country to eliminate drugs and [promote] socio-economic development, etcetera. This will be our continuing priority to work with the Myanmar Government. In that, we count on Daw Aung Suu Kyi’s continuing commitment and leadership, and we have great expectations of your leadership and I really thank you. And let us work together for your country’s democraticization and many other countries and peoples who may look to you, to your leadership and vision. Thank you very much.
