Suu Kyi to Visit Myanmar Refugees in Thailand Aung San Suu Kyi was set to turn her attention to Myanmar's long-standing refugee crisis Saturday with a visit to a sprawling camp on Thailand's border, where she will get her first glimpse of the hardships faced by some of the hundreds of thousands of civilians who have fled war in her homeland. The six-day journey abroad this week is Suu Kyi's first in 24 years, and she has used it primarily to draw attention to the plight of her compatriots abroad. The trip marks a dramatic vote of confidence in Myanmar's reform-minded government, whose rule contrasts starkly with that of the former military junta, which the opposition leader and longtime political prisoner always feared would never have let her return had she left. Suu Kyi has repeatedly said she believes Myanmar President Thein Sein is truly committed to democratic reform, but this week she warned the international community to exercise caution and a "healthy skepticism," saying the nation's all-powerful military was still a force "to be reckoned with." Western nations have begun suspending harsh economic sanctions that once helped isolate the now-defunct army regime, but critics say much more needs to be done. Hundreds of political prisoners remain behind bars, fighting with ethnic Kachin rebels is continuing in the north, and according to the United Nations, at least 417,000 refugees are still afraid to return. The vast majority of those refugees live in Thailand, Malaysia, India and Bangladesh. On Saturday, Suu Kyi was expected to fly west from Bangkok to the town of Mae Sot, from where she is supposed to drive more than an hour to the Mae La refugee camp. Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi addresses the World Economic Forum on East Asia in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, June 1, 2012. AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit This part of the Thai border is home to up to 140,000 ethnic Karen refugees. The Karen have been waging a guerrilla war for greater autonomy since the country obtained independence from Britain in 1948 - one of the longest insurgencies in the world. In recent weeks, however, the group has been in negotiations with the government to end the fighting. Last month, leaders from the Karen National Union met Thein Sein's military-backed government as well as Suu Kyi to firm up a cease-fire they agreed in January. Suu Kyi spent 15 out of 22 years locked under house arrest by the former military regime, during which time she occasionally spoke to the outside world through audio and video messages. She was granted freedom after Myanmar held elections in 2010 and was elected to parliament in April. She is due to return to Myanmar on Sunday, but next month, she flies to five countries in Europe, including Norway, where she will formally accept her Nobel Peace Prize, 21 years after winning it. On Friday, she said her mission was to find out how the world can help "that little piece of the world that some of us call Burma and some of us call Myanmar." Anticipating huge aid and investment to develop Myanmar's stunted infrastructure, Suu Kyi said she hoped foreign firms would invest cautiously and transparently, so the influx of money can benefit the impoverished masses. "We do not want more investment to mean more possibilities for corruption," she said. Our country must benefit. Since elections last year, Thein Sein has surprised much of the world by engineering sweeping reforms. But Suu Kyi noted that the country is only in the very early phases of building a democracy and still lacks rule of law and an independent judiciary. "These days I am coming across what I call reckless optimism," she told the room packed with several hundred people and a wall of TV cameras. She drew applause, saying, "A little bit of healthy skepticism I think is in order." Associated Press writer Jocelyn Gecker contributed to this report.