Suu Kyi seeks to learn lessons from Northern Ireland peace process

Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has said lessons from Northern Ireland’s peace process will help the people of Burma reconcile their differences.

She met political leaders, police and schoolchildren during a whistle-stop tour of the region.

The peacemaker and former political prisoner said she was in Northern Ireland to listen and ask questions, because in her homeland during 50 years of military rule questions were not encouraged. "The main reason I have come to Northern Ireland is to learn about how you managed to negotiate a peace process in spite of all the difficulties," she said at Wellington College in Belfast. "It is very useful – what we have learned here I think will help us a great deal back in Burma."

She said divisions in Northern Ireland, dating back 800 years, were more deep seated, but in Burma the problem was much more complex, with a multiplicity of ethnicities and challenges in integrating a new military and civilian administration.