Aung San Suu Kyi

From Philosopedia

Aung San Suu Kyi (19 June 1945 - )

Aung San Suu Kyi is a nonviolent pro-democracy activist in Myanmar. (Her name is pronounced owng san soo kyee.)

The daughter of the assassinated General Aung San, who was hailed as the father of Burmese independence, she studied at the University of Delhi in India and at Oxford. Social unrest forced General Ne Win to resign in 1988, and the military took power. She then co-founded the National League for Democracy (NLD) but was arrested along with many NLD members in 1989. Although the NLD won a resounding victory in the ensuing elections, she was forced to remain under house arrest.

On 1 January 1972, Suu Kyi married Michael Aris. The following year, in 1973, Suu Kyi gave birth to her first son, Alexander, in London. In 1977, she had her second child, Kim. Her husband and father of their children died 27 March 1999 of prostate cancer

In 1990 the devout Buddhist won the Rafto Prize and the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. In 1991 she won the Nobel Peace Prize for her peaceful and non-violent struggle under a repressive military regime in the country formerly known as Burma. She was placed under house arrest from 10 July 1989 to 10 July 1995, again from Sep 2000 to 6 May 2002, and again 31 May 2003 to the present.

During her house arreest, she has spoken out for all countries to follow the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which the military in Myanmar does not observe.