Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi (L) meets with old friends at a reception at St Hugh's College in Oxford

AFP

Aung San Suu Kyi made an emotional return to Britain on her 67th birthday Tuesday, visiting her former home of Oxford and speaking of the "sacrifice" her family were forced to make, reports AFP.

The Myanmar democracy icon was greeted at Oxford University, her alma mater, after taking part in a debate at the London School of Economics (LSE) and meeting the radio DJ she credits with giving her a lifeline during 24 years spent mainly under house arrest.

She spent nearly 20 years in Oxford, southern England, and brought up her two sons there with her late husband, the academic Michael Aris.

When she left for her homeland to care for her dying mother in 1988 she had no idea it would be nearly a quarter of a century before she could return.

As leader of the country's democracy movement, she refused to leave Myanmar, fearing that the military leaders would prevent her from returning.

As a result, she only saw her husband and sons a handful of times in the intervening years. Her husband died of cancer in 1999, having told her not to come back but to continue her struggle.

"I've said very often, in fact again and again ad nauseam, that I don't look at what I have done as a sacrifice. It was a choice I made," Suu Kyi told ITV television.

"It was a sacrifice for my husband and sons. Especially for my sons, because my husband after all was adult, but the children were young and it must have mattered to them not to have both parents near them.

"And I don't feel good about it, but on the other hand I think that in the end, one decides what one's priorities are and one lives with one's decisions."

Britain's last Hong Kong governor Chris Patten, the Chancellor of Oxford University, gave her an official welcome and her former college St Hugh's was playing host to a birthday party.

It was, however, unclear whether both her sons would attend the private celebration.

Her younger son Kim, now 35, still lives in Oxford and was expected to attend the reunion, but it was not clear if her older son Alexander, 39, who reportedly lives in the United States, would be there.

People cheered and shouted "welcome back" as she arrived in Oxford.

Earlier at the BBC World Service headquarters in London, she finally met Dave Lee Travis, the bearded radio DJ nicknamed the "Hairy Cornflake", whose music programme she listened to while she was detained.