Nobel laureate Suu Kyi says sanctions help nudge Myanmar toward democracy First Posted: 02/29/2012 10:17

am Updated: 02/29/2012 11:49 am OTTAWA - Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi says tough Canadian sanctions are helpi ng her native Myanmar on its hard road to democracy. Suu Kyi is speaking to Canadians for the first time through an Internet link bet ween her Myanmar home where she has spent most of the last two decades under house arrest and Carleton University. She says Myanmar's new civilian leaders are feeling the economic pressure and ar e being pushed to reform because of international sanctions. "Canada has helped us greatly with regard to our movement towards democracy," Su u Kyi says. The Nobel Peace Prize winner has become a global symbol of peaceful resistance t o oppression and is one of only five people to be granted honorary Canadian citi zenship. After a half-century under a military junta, Myanmar held elections last year an d handed power over to a civilian government. Suu Kyi was also given more freedom and is now campaigning in a round of by-elec tions across Myanmar, once known as Burma. "The way in which you can continue to help us is to keep up your awareness of wh at is happening in Burma," she told her audience Wednesday. "Don't be too optimi stic. Don't be too pessimistic. Try to see things as they are and try to keep co ntact with the ordinary people of Burma. "That is how you will learn whether or not we are making any progress under this new government." Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a landslide electoral victory in 199 0 but was barred by the military from forming a government. Her party, no longer banned, is contesting 48 seats in parliamentary by-election s set for April. Even if her party wins all these seats, it will still only have a minority in pa rliament. But Suu Kyi says any success will mean the voices of the Burmese people will beg in to be heard. Canada and others view the attempts at reform cautiously. However, the efforts of Myanmar President Thein Sein received a major boost when he hosted U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in December, the first such h igh-profile visit by an American official in more than 50 years. Suu Kyi says she believes her country's new civilian president is "sincere" in h is intent to reform, but success depends on what the military thinks about that process. She says there is still a "great barrier" between the military and her people. R emoving that obstacle, she says, would be a key step on the road to reform. "We are at the beginning of the road," she says. "We have been able to reconnect

with our people." In January, Myanmar released about 300 political prisoners, including activists, ethnic and religious leaders and journalists. Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has greeted the move as a "significant step forward" by Myanmar. Baird met Myanmar's foreign minister at a security forum in Indonesia last summe r and stressed the need for his government to release thousands of political pri soners. Canada opened a strategic engagement with Myanmar last summer that included the exchange of ambassadors, but continues to maintain a tough regime of sanctions t hat were toughened considerably in 2007. That was also the same year that Canada conferred honorary citizenship on Suu Ky i.