Suu Kyi to visit Burmese migrant center on historic Thai trip

Crowds gather outside a Burmese migrant center in Thailand ahead of a visit by Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Crowds gather in Thailand ahead of a visit by Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi


• Suu Kyi is to visit a Burmese migrant center during her first trip outside Myanmar in two decades


• Onlookers climbed onto rooftops ahead of her anticipated speech in Mahachai, southwest of Bangkok

(CNN) -- Hundreds of people waving flags and shouting slogans have gathered outside a Burmese migrant center in Thailand ahead of a visit Wednesday by Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Chanting "Long live Mother Suu," members of the crowd also held photos of Suu Kyi and her father General Aung San, a revolutionary who was assassinated six months before Myanmar's independence from British rule.

Suu Kyi is due to tour a prawn market in Mahachai southwest of the Thai capital of Bangkok, and will then address migrant workers from a balcony in a neighborhood crammed with small local shops. Onlookers could be seen sitting on roofs and leaning over balconies awaiting her arrival.

"I want to hear good news from her. I want to hear about the independence of Burma and democracy and that there are jobs available," said San Nyo, a Burmese migrant from Daw who has been living in Thailand for three years.

Another, Myint Swe, a vendor who has lived in Thailand with his wife and three children for 12 years, told CNN: "I love Suu Kyi. This is a very happy moment. I want her to say we can come home and have jobs."

"It is tough living in Thailand. We get a lot of pressure from Thai police and passport control," he added.

Suu Kyi is on her first trip outside Myanmar in more than two decades after a long period of detention during which she was unable to leave the country for fear she wouldn't be allowed to return.

Within the last two years, Myanmar's leadership has eased repressive controls on the country, allowing opposition parties to take part in the most recent elections, which granted Suu Kyi a seat in Parliament.

Suu Kyi's visit to Bangkok comes ahead of a longer trip to Europe next month during which she will make a series of key addresses, including the acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize that she was prevented from collecting in 1991 because she was in detention.

Source & Image : CNN World