Suu Kyi receives Oxford honorary doctorate

DHAKA: Aung San Suu Kyi said she was deeply moved on Wednesday as she was honoured by Oxford University, in the city where she studied and brought up the family she would later leave behind.

The Myanmar democracy icon also called on the prestigious seat of learning to help educate a new generation of students that could lead the South-east Asian country along the road from military rule to democracy.

‘Today has been very moving’, Suu Kyi, 67, said in a speech after she was presented with an honorary doctorate in civil law in the grand surroundings of Oxford’s 17th century Sheldonian Theatre.

‘During those difficult years I spent under house arrest I was upheld by my memories of Oxford. They helped me cope with the challenges I had to face’, she said, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 2051 HRS, JUN 20, 2012

Edited by Robab Rosan, Cultural Affairs Editor