Burmese pro-democracy leader Suu Kyi attends a news conference after addressing the 101st session of the International Labor Conference of the International Labor Organization at the United Nations European headquarters in Geneva, June 14, 2012.
Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has called for international aid and investment that will help promote further democratic reform in Burma, as she kicked off her landmark European tour in Geneva.
The newly elected lawmaker said in an address Thursday to the International Labor Organization (ILO) that she would like to see the Burmese government make additional reforms to protect the rights of workers in the once isolated country.
Her speech comes a day after the ILO, a U.N. agency that sets and monitors global labor conditions, lifted sanctions against Burma after its government pledged to abolish forced labor by 2015.
Aung San Suu Kyi also expressed concern about the violence between Muslims and Buddhists that has gripped western Burma for over a week. She told reporters that such violence will continue unless the rule of law is ensured and every citizen is guaranteed equal protection.
The Nobel laureate was greeted with flowers as she arrived in Geneva and received several lengthy standing ovations during her speech, which comes at the outset of her first trip to Europe in 24 years.
The 67-year-old democracy activist spent much of the past two decades under house arrest. She was released in 2010, but had previously been afraid to leave the country out of fear the government would not let her return.
The trip is a sign of her increased confidence in Burma＇s nascent reform process, which began last year when the country＇s long-time military rulers ceded power to a quasi-civilian government.
Following her address in Geneva, she will travel to the Swiss capital of Bern to meet President Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf and Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter.
On Friday, she will visit the Swiss parliament before heading for Oslo where she is due to formally accept the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, which she was unable to receive in person due to her detention.
Later in the trip, Aung San Suu Kyi will address Britain＇s parliament and receive an Amnesty International human rights award in Dublin from rock star Bono.
She will also spend time in Britain, where she lived for years with her late husband before returning to Burma in 1988.
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