Aung San Suu Kyi To Canvass Karen State For Constitution Change

National League of Democracy official confirmed to Karen News that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will travel to Karen State in the third week of January 2014.

Nan Khin Htwey Myint, an executive from the NLD party, the political party that Suu Kyi leads, told Karen News that Suu Kyi was on a goodwill visit to the State to canvass support for a change to Burma’s constitution that currently prohibits her from becoming the country’s president.

Nan Khin Htwey Myint said that the NLD expected Suu Kyi’s visit to attract thousands of supporters.

“The meeting with Hpa-An residents has been permitted to take place at either the Than-lwin ground or the Thi-Ri ground. We expect tens of thousands of local people to attend the meeting,” she said. In addition, NLD policies would also be explained to the people joining the meeting.

Saw Kyaw Swar, Secretary of the Karen Affairs Committee, told Karen News that he expected Karen people would be excited over Ms Suu Kyi’s visit. It will be Aung San Suu Kyi’s first visit to the State since she was released from house arrest in 2010.

Saw Kyaw Swar expressed frustration over the vagueness of some NLD policies and was wary over Suu Kyi’s reasons to visit the area.

“It is frustrating that there is still no clarity on NLD policies regarding ethnic rights. I don’t think this trip will bring any extraordinary news for securing rights of our people, it may be only for her political benefit and that of her party,” he said.

Suu Kyi is currently traveling through Chin State and Sagaing division, before her visit to Karen State.
Karen News is led to understand that Ms Suu Kyi will also visit Shan State, parts of which are currently in a state of conflict between the Shan State Army-North (SSA-N) and the Burma Army.