Suu Kyi campaigns for Burma polls as US eases sanctions

Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is travelling outside her home town for the first time as a registered candidate for elections.

 

Ms Suu Kyi is visiting the Irrawaddy Delta, an area she last visited two decades ago.

On Monday, her candidacy for 1 April by-elections was formally accepted.

Meanwhile, the US has eased one of the sanctions it levels against Burma, in what it said was a response to ongoing reforms.

The partial waiver, signed on Monday, will allow Burma to receive limited technical assistance from international financial institutions.

On Tuesday, crowds of cheering supporters greeted Ms Suu Kyi as she campaigned in the region devastated by Cyclone Nargis in 2008.

In a speech punctuated by jokes, Ms Suu Kyi told a huge crowd gathered on a football pitch in the main town that she was confident Burma would move forward.

Her party’s election campaign, she said, would be focused on the rule of law, development and national reconciliation.

The Nobel Peace laureate, who spent years under house arrest, is standing for parliament in the rural township of Kawhmu, southwest of Rangoon.

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