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Barack Obama holds talks with Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi
ABC Radio Australia - November 14, 2014
The meeting at Ms Suu Kyi's home in Yangon comes as the opposition leader pushes to overturn a constitutional rule that bars her from running for the presidency in elections in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
At a joint press conference on Friday, Mr Obama said Myanmar's reforms were "neither complete nor irreversible" and that hard work remains to be done. Mr Obama said the US would continue to look to his fellow Nobel laureate for "inspiration".
"I know you will continue to be an advocate on behalf of the people of Burma a future of democracy and I know you will be a strong partner with the United States," he said.
Mr Obama called for an inclusive election and said solutions had to be found for tens of thousands of minority Muslims who have been displaced by violence.
Ms Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy party, urged a "healthy balance between optimism and pessimism" towards the nation's stuttering reform process and warned against complacency.
"Our reform process is going through a bumpy patch, but this bumpy patch is something that we can negotiate with the commitment and with the help and understanding of our friends from all over the world," she told reporters.
Ms Suu Kyi also criticised the laws barring her from running in the country's presidential election next year, stating that the constitutional clause prohibiting her from becoming president is unfair, unacceptable, and counter to democratic principles. Ms Suu Kyi cannot become Myanmar's president because her children are British citizens.
"I object to that clause not because it bars me from the presidency as such, but because it is against the principles of democracy, and [is] also unconstitutional," she said.
"The constitution says that all students should be treated as equals, and this is discrimination on the grounds of my children, my children's spouses etcetera."
Ms Suu Kyi added that the country must respect the diversity of all its citizens and begin to work together.
"It is the duty of the government to make all our people feel secure. And it is the duty of our people to learn to live in harmony with one another," she said.
"If we want democracy, we have to be prepared to live by the principles of democracy. I think we will get there but it will take us some time – but we will remain fully committed to the principle of non-violence."
The talks took place after Mr Obama met Myanmar's president Thein Sein at the East Asia Summit in the capital, Naypyidaw, on Thursday. Mr Obama told his Myanmar counterpart that elections in 2015 need to be "free, inclusive and transparent".
Thein Sein said Myanmar is working to address some of the issues that concerned Mr Obama, but it will take time. The country will continue with its transition, he added.
Myanmar's quasi-civilian government has earned international plaudits for reforms that began in 2011 and have seen hundreds of political prisoners freed, censorship scrapped and opened the country to foreign investment. (AFP/ABC)
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