Call our country Myanmar, Suu Kyi is told

Aung San Suu Kyi visited the Louvre Museum in Paris yesterday (AP)

Aung San Suu Kyi's home country has changed dramatically over the past year, but one thing won't change just yet: its name.

As the opposition leader visited the Louvre Museum in Paris yesterday on the last day of her tour of Europe, authorities in her home country warned her to stop calling the country "Burma". The election commission said she should use its official title, the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, to "respect the constitution".

The country's military rulers changed the English name from Burma to Myanmar in 1989, but regime opponents and exile groups – as well as foreign governments – have persisted in calling the country Burma in defiance of an undemocratic regime they long saw as illegitimate.

AP