Prague, Sept 19 (CTK) – Burmese politician and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi may visit Prague and meet President Milos Zeman as well as Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) in October, the server Aktualne.cz reported on Tuesday.
Her meeting with Senate chairman Milan Stech (CSSD) is being prepared for October 11, the Senate’s Office told CTK.
The visit by Suu Kyi, 72, former dissident and prisoner of the Burmese military regime, has been prepared for long, according to CTK diplomatic sources, but the preparations are complicated by the criticised Burmese military’s steps against the Rohingya ethnic minority.
The U.N. is of the view that ethnic cleansing is underway in Burma for which Suu Kyi is being criticised.
Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek (CSSD) invited Suu Kyi to the Czech Republic during his visit to Burma last year. Suu Ky, who became a symbol of the fight for democracy in Burma, accepted the offer.
Sources from Zeman’s circles and the Foreign Ministry have confirmed to CTK that Suu Kyi’s visit to the Czech Republic is being planned.
However, they did not say whether she would arrive before the mandate of Sobotka’s current coalition government expired. The general election is scheduled for October 20-21.
Aktualne.cz writes that Suu Kyi might cancel her visit because of the problems with the expulsion of the Rohingya people from the territory of the Arakan state in west Burma.
“Czech organisers fear that the famous Burmese politician might change her mind and cancel her trip as she did in the case of her participation in the U.N. General Assembly held in New York now,” the server writes.
According to some media, the security forces are burning down the Rohingya villages in the Arakan state. Over 410,000 Rohingya refugees fled from the wave of violence since August 25. This is more than one-third of their population in Burma. Su Kyi’s supporters criticise her unclear position on the violent expulsion of this Muslim ethnic group.
Suu Kyi supported the operation against the Rohingya people at the beginning. However, she condemned any human rights violations in a TV programme on Tuesday. She said he government was prepared to start checking the Rohingya refugees to enable their return.
Suu Kyi visited the Czech Republic once in 2013 as a guest to the Forum 2000 conference, founded by the late Czechoslovak and Czech president Vaclav Havel (1936-2011). It was also Havel who proposed her for the Nobel Peace Prize she received in 1991.
