Suu Kyi addresses Fort Wayne audience

Political activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi told a Fort Wayne, Ind., audience Tuesday she hopes expatriates will return to Burma.

Referring to her homeland by its former name, Burma, instead of its current name, Myanmar, Suu Kyi said if those who left the country wish to return, she would "do my best to achieve this goal." She also thanked the Fort Wayne community for hosting and educating Burmese refugees and said the United States, "the greatest democracy in the world," was teaching her country how to be a democracy, through discussion, debate and compromise.

Suu Kyi, leader of Myanmar's political opposition party, was among the world's most prominent political prisoners, under house arrest by authorities for 15 of the 21 years between 1989 and 2010. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

The audience of 5,000 at Fort Wayne's Memorial Coliseum included Mayor Tom Henry and Sen. Dan Coates, R-Ind., the Fort Wayne, Ind., Journal Gazette reported.