UCT to honour Aung San Suu Kyi
The University of Cape Town is to confer an honorary doctorate of law on human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, held under house arrest by the Myanmar military junta.
The leader of the main opposition National League of Democracy party, Suu Kyi has been in several spells of detention, and her movements restricted.
In the past 18 years she has been held for a total of 11. She has no telephone and is allowed only two visitors, her maid and doctor.
Vice-chancellor Njabulo Ndebele said UCT wanted to honour Suu Kyi for the personal sacrifices she had made for the freedom of her country's people.
"We acknowledge Suu Kyi as an extraordinary example of sheer strength, her wealth of knowledge, her perseverance and as a symbol of determination of women all over the world.
"Through Suu Kyi's example, there is hope for millions of the down-trodden around the world."
Because the junta has banned Suu Kyi from leaving her native Myanmar, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu will receive the degree on her behalf at UCT's December graduation ceremony.
A fellow Nobel peace laureate, Tutu is a long-time and outspoken campaigner for her release and the liberation of her people.
Celebrated for her non-violent struggle against oppression, the devout Buddhist was awarded the Rafto Prize and the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1990 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. In national elections in 1990 her party won 82 percent of the seats in parliament, but the victory was rejected by the ruling military junta.
If the results had been accepted, she would have become the country's prime minister.
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