Aung San Suu Kyi gives Nobel acceptance speech 21 years later

LONDON – Twenty-one years after she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Aung San Suu Kyi made her acceptance speech at last on Saturday during her first tour of Europe after spending most of the last two decades under house arrest.

“When I joined the democracy movement in Burma, it never occurred to me that I might ever be the recipient of any prize or honor. The prize we were working for was a free, secure and just society where our people might be able to realize their full potential,” Suu Kyi said. “When the Nobel committee chose to honor me, the road I had chosen of my own free will became a less lonely path to follow.”

The 66-year-old democracy campaigner was greeted with a standing ovation by the glittering crowd inside Oslo city hall in the Norwegian capital. She spoke clearly and firmly, showing no sign of the exhaustion-induced illness that struck her at an earlier stop in Switzerland.

She recalled learning that she had won the 1991 Nobel Prize by hearing news of it on the radio in Burma, also known as Myanmar. With her movements restricted by the country’s ruling military junta, she was unable to receive the award in person; her now-late husband accepted it on her behalf. But the recognition helped ease her isolation.

“It had made me real once again. It had drawn me back into the wider human community, and what is more important, the Nobel Prize had drawn the attention of the world to the struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma,” Suu Kyi said. “We were not going to be forgotten.”

Her belated speech Saturday was made possible because of the Burmese government’s recent political liberalization, which has earned praise from around the world.

“There have been changes in a positive direction,” Suu Kyi said. “Steps towards democratization have been taken. If I advocate cautious optimism it is not because I do not have faith in the future, but because I do not want to encourage blind faith.”

Rather, all sectors of Burmese society must actively participate in and support the reform process, she said. And in the only part of her address to be interrupted with applause, she called for the release of other political prisoners in her country.

“I am standing here because I was once a prisoner of conscience. As you look at me and listen to me, please remember the oft-repeated truth that one prisoner of conscience is one too many,” she said. “Those who have not yet been freed, those who have not yet been given access to the benefits of justice in my country number much more than one. Please remember them and do whatever is possible to effect their earliest, unconditional release.”

Suu Kyi’s tour of Europe will also take her to Ireland and to Britain, where she was once a student at Oxford. In London, she will enjoy the rare honor of addressing the British Parliament.

On Saturday, Suu Kyi emphasized the need for universal human rights to be upheld around the world.

“Receiving the Nobel Peace Prize means personally extending my concern for democracy and human rights beyond national borders. The Nobel Peace Prize opened up a door in my heart,” she said, then urged her audience: “Let us join hands to try to create a peaceful world where we can sleep in security and wake in happiness.”

ALSO:

Germany's mysterious 'feral child' is neither

Suu Kyi to accept her Nobel in person; others didn't [Video]

International court gets first African female head prosecutor

-- Henry Chu

Photo: Burmese democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi delivers her Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech 21 years after she was accorded the honor. Credit: Ragnar Singsaas / Getty Images

Suu Kyi to accept her Nobel in person; others didn't [Video]

Aung San Suu Kyi was to give her Nobel Peace Prize speech on Saturday in Oslo, 21 years after she got the award. Suu Kyi had long feared leaving Myanmar because she didn’t know whether its military government would let her return. The video above shows her sons and late husband  accepting the prize for her in 1991.

Her trip to Europe this week was feted as a sign of change in Myanmar, which allowed her opposition party to stand for elections this year. Here are the stories of some other Nobel laureates who didn't -- or couldn't -- pick up their prizes, drawn from The Times' archives.

Liu Xiaobo (2010)

A giant photo of Liu smiled out on the audience a few feet away from the potently symbolic empty chair where he would have sat had China allowed him to receive the award in Oslo, Norway. Liu, 54, is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence for "inciting subversion of state power" because he helped draft a manifesto known as Charter 08 calling for democratic reform.

... Infuriated by the Nobel committee's decision, China had tried for weeks to pressure countries around the world to skip the ceremony, and even gave out a competing peace award earlier this week. But in the end, fewer than two dozen nations, among them Russia and Pakistan, stayed away.

Lech Walesa (1983)

Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi on historic European visit

NEW DELHI -- Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar enjoyed her first full day on European soil in 24 years on Thursday, the beginning of a 17-day visit that includes stops in Switzerland, Norway, Britain, Ireland and France.

In addition to her address Thursday to the U.N. International Labor Organization in Geneva, highlights will include a long-delayed acceptance speech Saturday in Oslo for the Nobel Peace Prize she received in absentia in 1991.

"I'm excited about each country in a different way," Suu Kyi, 66, said on Wednesday before her departure from Yangon airport in her homeland. "I'll get to know this only when I get there."

The Myanmar parliamentarian, who spent 15 years in detention or under house arrest before her by-election win in April, had repeated opportunities over the past quarter century to leave Myanmar. In fact, the brutal military regime that long ruled the country would have welcomed her departure. The problem was always getting permission to return and continue her fight for more political and social rights in the long-isolated country, which is also known as Burma.

“Symbolically, the trip is deeply significant,” said Sean Turnell, a professor at Australia’s Macquarie University and editor of the Burma Economic Watch blog. “And it’s a nice moment of fulfillment personally, finally getting the Nobel prize.”

Norwegian masses sing 'rainbow' song Breivik despises [Video]

In a musical act of defiance, Norwegians crowded public squares Thursday to sing a gentle tune that confessed killer Anders Behring Breivik has argued was a Marxist song used to brainwash children to embrace multiculturalism. Massive crowds gathered despite a steady rain, bearing roses.

In Oslo alone, an estimated 40,000 people flooded the Youngstorget square to sing. In the video above, Norwegian singer Lillebjørn Nilsen leads the crowd in singing "Barn av regnbuen," a Norwegian version of "My Rainbow Race," penned by American folk sing Pete Seeger.

The Associated Press translated its lyrics as follows:

A sky full of stars, blue sea as far as you can see

An earth where flowers grow, can you wish for more?

Together shall we live, every sister, brother, you and me

Young children of the rainbow, a fertile land and seashore.

The Oslo square isn't far from the courtroom where Breivik is on trial for killing 77 people in a rampage that devastated Norway and drew new attention to Islamophobia and extremism in Europe. Breivik claims he was defending Norway against "cultural suicide" through the slayings.

"We have a quiet majority that sometimes gets a bit too quiet," Shoaib Sultan of the Norwegian Centre against Racism told the Associated Press. Sultan said it was important to "demonstrate tolerance."

ALSO:

Pakistani PM Gilani convicted of contempt

Liberia's Charles Taylor guilty of aiding, abetting war crimes

While 'Obamacare' under fire, universal care catches on globally

-- Emily Alpert in Los Angeles

Video: Tens of thousands of Norwegians sing "Barn av regnbuen" in downtown Oslo. Credit: HAAJHA / YouTube

Media spotlight may not help Norwegian killer spread views

Norwegian television has been banned from broadcasting the testimony of confessed killer Anders Behring Breivik as he goes on trial, yet his chilling declarations about why and how he killed scores of people have still made headlines around the world.

The deluge of reporting on Breivik has caused a backlash from disgusted Norwegians; one Norwegian newspaper website  allows people to browse a Breivik-free edition by clicking a button. Many complain that Breivik has gotten exactly what he wanted:  a platform  for spreading his views.

Yet experts disagree on whether airing his ideas will spread them. Very little is known about how people become radicalized, let alone how the media play into that, said Ben O’Loughlin, a Royal Holloway University of London professor who studies media and security.

Censoring his words could easily backfire, he said. “If you tell people these views are too extreme for us to show you, people immediately go on to the Internet to look for them,” O’Loughlin said.

The news that Breivik has a Massachusetts pen pal who calls his actions "atrocious but necessary" seemed to bear out the worst fears about the media blitz. Tad Tietze, a Sydney psychiatrist who contributed to a book on the murders, said Breivik is targeting his message to others who believe that Muslims are "invading their lands," hoping to convince them that violence is needed.

"His ideas can get out there via media and win them over," Tietze said. "Journalists are in a very, very difficult position,  because the trial is of obvious public interest and does need to be reported."

Others believe that Breivik is ultimately more likely to turn people against extremism. Norwegian anthropologist Thomas Hylland Eriksen, called as an expert witness in the case, told British television station ITN that Breivik was so distasteful that airing his views would be more like “a mosquito repellent,” showing people "how bad it could get if they are attracted to these crazy notions of purity and cleansing."

Radical right-wing parties that believe Europe is under threat from immigration have toned down their rhetoric since the killings, said Jamie Bartlett, head of the violence and extremism program at the Demos think tank. The Norwegian Progress Party, which Breivik once belonged to, has lost support.

"I think the interest in censoring him is that we want to punish him, rather than fear of these ideas themselves," said Padraig Reidy, news editor of Index of Censorship, a free-speech group.

Aung San Suu Kyi to leave Myanmar for first time in 24 years

Long jailed, recently elected, Aung San Suu Kyi now plans to leave Myanmar for the first time in 24 years. The trip to Norway and Britain provides a chance for the former political prisoner to collect the Nobel Peace Prize she won decades ago while under house arrest.

Suu Kyi had refused to leave Myanmar, also known as Burma, while it was under strict military rule, fearing she would be blocked from returning. Her refusal to leave had often separated her from her husband and two children.

But the news that she would travel to Europe in June, reported by several news agencies Wednesday, was widely regarded as a sign of growing confidence in the new government. Suu Kyi first hinted at the idea when British Prime Minister David Cameron invited her to visit his country last week.

“Two years ago I would have said thank you for the invitation, but sorry. But now I am able to say perhaps, and that's great progress,” Suu Kyi was quoted as saying Friday by the Associated Press.

Though exact dates have not yet been set, National League for Democracy party spokesman Nyan Win told the Guardian newspaper that Suu Kyi will first visit Norway for meetings in Oslo, then head to Britain, where she will stop by Oxford, where she attended university in the 1970s.

Myanmar has embarked on reforms under its new military government, releasing hundreds of political prisoners. The United States recently announced it will begin easing sanctions on the country, but stressed that Myanmar needs to continue the change, including ending abuses against ethnic minorities.

Suu Kyi won her seat as part of a minority bloc in parliament; the military and its allies still hold more than 80% of the seats. Her campaign and victory were nonetheless seen as an important symbol of change, putting the opposition leader in office for the first time.

ALSO:

'Stop being a bystander,' letter urges Syria's first lady [Video]

A South African rape, captured on video, exposes an epidemic

Afghans revolted by U.S. troops posing with dead suicide bombers

-- Emily Alpert in Los Angeles

Photo: Myanmar democracy leader and newly elected parliament member Aung San Suu Kyi watches a New Year show in Kawhmu township in Yangon on Tuesday. Credit: Nyein Chan Naing / European Pressphoto Agency

Confessed killer Anders Behring Breivik: Attacks were 'spectacular'

LONDON -- Anders Behring Breivik, the right-wing Norwegian fanatic who has admitted killing 77 people on the Norwegian island of Utoya and in the Oslo city center last July, told a court Tuesday that he had carried out "the most sophisticated and spectacular political attack ... in Europe since World War II."

The confessed 33-year-old killer was captured on video raising his right arm in a fascist-style clenched-fist salute as he entered the court in Oslo. His testimony, which began with a statement in which he sought to explain his actions, was not broadcast due to a judicial decision to avoid giving a televised platform to his violent anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant views. But his remarks were widely reported. 

Ignoring demands from presiding Judge Wenche Elizabeth Arntzen to limit his statement, Breivik continued his justification for the massacre, according to a BBC report. He claimed that he would have "done it again" to defend Norway and that his actions were based on "goodness, not evil."

Breivik compared the killings to the U.S. use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945, according to an Associated Press report, which quoted him as saying, "The attacks on July 22 were a preventive strike. I acted in self-defense on behalf of my people, my city, my country."

The second day of his trial was temporarily delayed as Thomas Indreboe, a lay judge on the five-member panel, was dismissed for Internet comments he made last summer calling for the death penalty for Breivik. He was replaced by Judge Elisabeth Wisloeff. 

Breivik and witnesses on his behalf will give evidence for the rest of the week, but none of the testimony is scheduled to be broadcast.

Authorities charge that Breivik targeted an annual Labor Party political camp on Utoya, shooting and killing 69 young Norwegians, and blew up a government building in central Oslo, leaving eight people dead.

His trial is expected to last 10 weeks and he faces a sentence of 21 years in prison, which can be extended if he is considered a danger to society.

ALSO:

Britain's plan to expand state surveillance causes furor

U.S. court sentences Russian arms dealer to 25 years in prison

Anders Behring Breivik, confessed Norwegian killer, goes on trial

 -- Janet Stobart

Photo: Anders Behring Breivik approaches the witness box in an Oslo courtroom on Tuesday. Credit: Lise Aserud / Associated Press

Anders Behring Breivik, confessed Norwegian killer, goes on trial

This story has been updated. See the note below.

LONDON -- Anders Behring Breivik, who has confessed to killing 77 people in a rampage last July, went on trial Monday in Oslo for Norway’s worst criminal episode since World War II.

The 33-year-old right-wing extremist has admitted to slaying 69 young people gathered for an annual Labor party political camp on the Norwegian island of Utoya on July 22 after killing eight other people by detonating a homemade bomb that destroyed a government building in the center of the Norwegian capital.

Breivik appeared calm and defiant as he entered the courtroom dressed in a dark suit and wearing handcuffs.  He surveyed the ranks of media and public packed inside the courtroom and smiled.   Family members and survivors of the attacks were in the public sector, separated from the defendant by thick glass partitions.

After his handcuffs were removed he gave a raised-fist fascist style salute before sitting down and giving a brief statement, saying: “I do not recognize the Norwegian courts. ... You have received your mandate from political parties which support multiculturalism.”  He went on to say he acknowledged the acts but claimed he carried them out “in self defense.”

Breivik’s antagonism to Islam, Muslim immigrants and multiculturalism has been aired in documents and statements since the killings. Through his lawyer, Geir Lippestad, he has said he was sorry he “didn’t go further” to kill more than the 77 victims.  

In long-winded, rambling political essays on the Internet he has proclaimed himself a knight on a crusade against what he sees as Norway’s “cultural suicide” and expressed anti-feminist views along with his hatred for Norway’s Labor government, which supports both immigration and multiculturalism.

On Monday, he listened impassively as prosecutor Inga Bejer Engh listed the 77 victims and the manner of their death in an hour-long statement.       

Svein Holden, also speaking for the prosecution, then gave the court an account of Breivik’s  past life and his fascination with extreme right-wing politics. The court was shown photographs of Breivik’s tiny bedroom and the remote farmhouse where he stockpiled weapons and explosives.  In other photos, Breivik posed in a self-styled military uniform, holding an automatic rifle and sporting medals and badges among them one reading, "Multiculti (sic) Traitor Hunting Permit."

The court saw and heard of his allegiance to the Knights Templar, his version of a militant Christian religious order that no longer exists, and was shown Breivik's own 12-minute propaganda film making references to the group.  During the showing, which was not broadcast outside the court, Breivik was seen to burst into tears as he watched.

Holden also gave a detailed account with film and CCTV footage of Breivik’s actions on July 22, including recordings of the shots he fired on the island and his own calls to the Oslo police to announce his deeds during his 80-minute attack.

[Updated April 16, 11:53 a.m.:  At the playing of desperate phone calls from victims on the island made during the killing spree, several people left the gallery visibly upset, according to reporters blogging on the proceedings.]

Although initially deemed insane after his surrender to police and subsequent arrest, Breivik has recently been reassessed and judged to be sane. The most recent evaluators warned that there was a “high risk of repetition of violence.”

Under Norwegian law he faces a maximum penalty of 21 years in prison, which can be extended to life.  When Breivik was read the charges of crimes of terrorism and murder last month, Holden told reporters they were “crimes of a dimension we have no previous experience with in our society in modern times.”

Breivik will have five days to present his case which, reports say, will not be broadcast.

[Updated April 16, 11:53 a.m.: At the closing of Monday's session, Lippestad asked the court to allow his client to make a 30-minute statement supporting Breivik's testimony to come. While the attorney acknowledged it would be “very hard for the relatives” to hear, Lippestad said that “he has a basic right” to do so and “it is the most important piece of evidence to decide whether he is legally sane.”

But the court had already made it known that it would stop Breivik if he began to read out the statement, Britain's Daily Telegraph reported.]

Jorid Nordmelan, one young survivor from the massacre on Utoya, told the BBC before the trial, “I’m really looking forward to this being over with, because it feels like something is undone here, I really can’t move on with my life until this is done.”

RELATED:

In Norway, piecing together suspect's motives

Norway mass killer Breivik deemed sane by new evaluation

Confessed Norway mass killer to undergo 2nd psychiatric evaluation

-- Janet Stobart

Photo: Right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik, who has confessed to killing 77 people in twin attacks in Norway last year, makes a far-right salute as he enters court in Oslo on Monday. Credit: Heiko Junge / Agence France-Presse / Getty Images.

Norway mass killer Breivik deemed sane by new evaluation

This post has been updated. See the note below for details.

REPORTING FROM LONDON -– A new psychiatric evaluation of confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik has concluded that he is sane, contradicting a previous assessment of him as psychotic, court officials in Oslo announced Tuesday.

The finding comes a few days before Breivik’s trial is scheduled to begin, and throws into question what kind of sentence the 33-year-old could receive, whether imprisonment or psychiatric treatment.

Breivik has confessed to carrying out the twin attacks in Norway last July that claimed the lives of 77 people. A car bombing in the center of Oslo, the Norwegian capital, was followed by a massacre on the island of Utoya, where the heavily armed Breivik calmly hunted down and picked off young people gathered at a politically themed summer camp.

Breivik says he intended for the attacks to ignite a revolution to reclaim Europe from Muslim immigrants.

Turkey and Norway shutter their embassies in Syria

REPORTING FROM BEIRUT -- Turkey and Norway closed their embassies in Damascus on Monday, citing the security concerns amid unrest in Syria.  

The move came in the wake of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's increasing criticism of Syrian President Bashar Assad and as opposition leaders held a conference in Istanbul, Turkey. The meeting, in part meant to bridge conflicts between opposition groups, came as the Assad regime continued its assault on several regions in Syria, including the battered city of Homs.

Across Syria, 37 people were reported killed, including 22 in Homs, according to the Syrian Revolution Coordination Union, an activist group. Abu Fidaa, an activist in the Khaldiyeh neighborhood reached by Skype, said that shelling in the city and its suburbs began at 5 a.m., earlier than usual.

"They are using mortars but the army started to use a heavier caliber. ... After rounds of mortars they are using a missile," he said. "All Homs is being shelled."

The Syrian government has limited the access of outside media to the conflict zones, so the death tolls and accounts of shelling could not be independently verified.

Meanwhile, Syria has formally responded to a six-point plan to end the conflict proposed by United Nations special envoy Kofi Annan and endorsed by the Security Council, according to a brief statement released by Annan's spokesman.

The statement gave no specifics on Syria's response, but said that Annan is studying it and would respond shortly.

ALSO:

U.S. boosts compensation for grisly Afghanistan killings

Israeli officials to bar U.N. team from investigating settlements

Banning brothels could endanger prostitutes, Canadian court rules

-- Times staff

Photo: This image from amateur video and released by Shaam News Network on Monday purports to show smoke rising from buildings in Homs, Syria. Credit: Associated Press / Shaam News Network