Clinton honors Suu Kyi in Washington

WASHINGTON, Sept. 18 (UPI) -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking at the Institute of Peace in Washington, called Myanmar activist Aung San Suu Kyi a "free and forceful leader."

"The purpose for this gathering is quite an exciting one because we have here an opportunity for someone who has represented the struggle for freedom and democracy, for human rights and opportunity, not only in her own country but seen as such around the world. So it's wonderful to see Suu Kyi back in Washington as a free and forceful leader of a country opening up to the world in ways that would have been difficult to imagine even recently," Clinton said in remarks honoring the head of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar.

Clinton noted restrictions on the press and on freedom of assembly have eased in Myanmar over the past year, with hundreds of prisoners of conscience being released and opposition parties gaining legal status and seats in Parliament.

Suu Kyi spent a total of 15 years under house arrest after the NLD won 81 percent of the seats in Parliament in 1990.

Clinton said "flickers of progress" have been growing and strengthening, including the expansion of rights for workers to form unions.

"Suu Kyi's courage and moral leadership never wavered through years of house arrest and persecution. And she and other opposition leaders have now joined with President Thein Sein and the new government to take the courageous steps necessary to drive these reforms," Clinton said, adding she looks forward to welcoming Thein Sein to New York for the U.N. General Assembly next week.