Suu Kyi to make first foreign trip since 1988

Myanmar democracy activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi will make her first visit abroad to Oslo in June after years of house arrest, the Norwegian foreign ministry said on Wednesday. "The foreign minister (of Norway, Jonas Gahr Stoere) and Aung San Suu Kyi spoke on the phone Sunday and discussed her visit to Oslo in June," foreign ministry spokesman Svein Michelsen told AFP. "It will be" the opposition leader's first trip outside Myanmar since 1988 but no date has been set yet for the visit, Michelsen said. Suu Kyi has spent much of the past 22 years locked up by the junta under house arrest. Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, has surprised observers with a series of reforms in the past year, and recent elections saw Suu Kyi win her first seat in parliament. Suu Kyi was awarded the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize by the Norwegian Nobel Committee but she was never able to travel to Oslo to accept the award. She has long said she would visit Norway to express her appreciation for its support.