Burma’s Suu Kyi to Travel to U.S. to Receive Award

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

SUZANNE PLUNKETT / REUTERS

Burma pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi listens to the audience sing Happy Birthday to her following a discussion at the London School of Economics in central London, June 19, 2012. Suu Kyi turned sixty-seven.

(NAYPYITAW, Burma) — Burma opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi says she’ll travel to the United States in September to accept an award from an American think tank.

Atlantic Council issued a statement Monday saying it will present Suu Kyi with its Global citizenship award on Sept. 21. The Washington-based think tank says the award is meant to recognize “visionary global leaders.”

(PHOTOS: Aung San Suu Kyi Travels Abroad for the First Time in 24 Years)

Suu Kyi told The Associated Press in Burma’s capital, Naypyitaw, that she would travel to the U.S. to receive the award. She gave no other details of her trip.

The leader of Burma’s pro-democracy movement has spent most of the last 20 years under house arrest in Burma. She was freed in late 2010 and elected to parliament in a recent by-election.

@TIME