New York Times
Aung San Suu Kyi holds the hand of her son Kim Aris at the Yangon airport Tuesday. KHIN MAUNG WIN - AP
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was reunited with her younger son Tuesday after a decadelong separation during which she said she never felt that they had been apart.
"I am very happy," she said after meeting her son, Kim Aris, 33, at the airport.
The decision to grant him a visa after repeated refusals was a symbolic gesture of leniency by the military junta, which released Suu Kyi after her term of house arrest ended 10 days ago.
Tuesday's reunion underlined the personal toll of the political campaign that she has waged during the past two decades.
During that period she was detained for 15 years and only rarely allowed visitors or communication with the outside world.
Now that she is free, she said, she intends to lead what she calls a nonviolent revolution, rather than an incremental evolution. She said her use of the term "revolution" was justified because, "I think of evolution as imperceptible change, very, very slowly, and I think of revolution as significant change. I say this because we are in need of significant change."
Television footage Tuesday from the airport in Yangon showed Suu Kyi and her son in a brief embrace before walking out of the terminal together. One of the first things he did was to show her a red tattoo bearing the symbol of her party, which won an election in 1990 but was not allowed by the military to take power.
In 1991, Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which was accepted for her in Oslo by her older son, Alexander Aris. Her late husband, Michael Aris, raised their two children in Britain. He was unable to visit with his wife before his death a decade ago at 53, and she refused to leave the country to see him for fear that she would not be allowed to return to resume her house arrest.
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