Aung San Suu Kyi

U.S. Department of State

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Aung San Suu Kyi

Early Life:

Aung San Suu Kyi was born in 1943 to Burmese national leader General Aung San and his wife, Khin Kyi. General Aung San was assassinated in 1947.

In 1964 Ms. Suu Kyi entered Oxford University, studying philosophy, politics and economics. She graduated with a BA in 1967. After graduation she worked for the United Nations in New York as an Assistant Secretary and then as a Research Officer with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bhutan.

In 1972 Ms. Suu Kyi married Dr. Michael Aris, a British scholar, and moved with him back to Oxford, where her sons Alexander and Kim were born.

Burma Reaches for Freedom:

In March 1988, Aung San Suu Kyi returned to Burma to take care of her ailing mother. Burma at that time was governed by the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP), headed by Gen. U Ne Win. Gen. Ne Win stepped down as BSPP head in July 1988.

On August 8, 1988, a wave of anti-government demonstrations began in Rangoon and spread throughout the country. On August 26, Ms. Suu Kyi addressed a half million people in front of the Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon, calling for democratic government.

In September, the military seized control of the government and suppressed the demonstrations, killing thousands of demonstrators.

An Activist Is Born:

The National League for Democracy (NLD) organized in September 1988, with Aung San Suu Kyi as general secretary. After her mother died in December, Aung San Suu Kyi remained in Burma. For the next several months she traveled throughout the country, speaking to people about bringing democracy and human rights to Burma.

On April 5, 1989, Aung San Suu Kyi found herself facing soldiers ordered to aim their rifles at her as she campaigned in the Irrawaddy Delta. She faced down the soldiers as they waited for the order to fire. An officer eventually intervened and prevented Ms. Suu Kyi's assassination.

Political Prisoner:

In July 1989 the military government of Burma, now renamed Myanmar, placed Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest in Rangoon (Yangon). The junta offered to free her if she would agree to leave Myanmar. However, Aung San Suu Kui vowed she would not leave Burma until civilian government was restored.

The military declared Aung San Suu Kui ineligible to run for office in Burma's 1990 elections. Even so, the NLD won 80 percent of the seats in parliament. The military government ignored the elections.

Aung San Suu Kui would remain under house arrest until July 1995.

Nobel Peace Prize:

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded Aung San Suu Kyi the 1991 Peace Prize "for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights."

Interlude of Freedom:

In July 1995, Aung San Suu Kyi was freed from house arrest. The NLD reappointed her to be party chairman, in defiance of a government ban on changing party leadership.

In 1996, she called on the military government to convene the parliament that was elected in 1990. The government responded with a campaign of harassment of her and her followers.

In 1997, Suu Kyi's husband, Michael Aris, was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The government would not allow him to enter Burma, and she would not have been allowed to return had she left Burma. He died in Britain in 1999.

Imprisoned Again:

Suu Kyi's attempts to travel around Burma were blocked by the junta. Twice she was forced to spend several days in her car. She and other NLD members were not allowed to board trains. At times security forces prevented her from leaving her house, even though she was not officially under house arrest.

In September 2000, the government made Suu Kyi's detention official. Once again, she was placed under house arrest. She was released 19 months later.

However, in May 2003 the government detained Suu Kyi in Insein Prison for three months, then returned her to house arrest. She has remained under house arrest since.

The Saffron Revolution:

In August 2007, the military junta doubled fuel prices, which caused great hardship for most people in Burma. When Buddhist monks of Pakokku engaged in peaceful protest, soldiers attacked and injured several of them. Protests spread after the junta refused to apologize.

Throughout September, daily marches by Buddhist monks throughout Burma grew larger. On September 22, 1,000 monks marched to Aung San Suu Kyi's home in Rangoon.

By the end of September the junta cracked down. A great many monks were either exiled or arrested. Many are unaccounted for and might have been killed.

Constitutional Referendum: