Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
AUNG SAN SUU KYI
The world's most famous former prisoner of conscience,
AungSanSuuKyi
has for many
yearsservedasthehumanfaceoftheBurmesefreedomstruggle-assynonymouswithher
country's democratic aspirations as Nelson Mandela was with the anti-Apartheid move-
ment in South Africa.
Much of Aung San Suu Kyi's standing undoubtedly derives from her status as the daugh-
ter of the revered
Aung San
(1915-47), father of modern Myanmar, although despite her
illustriousparentagetherewaslittle inherearlylifetosuggestthepathshewouldlaterfol-
low. Born in Yangon in 1945, Aung San Suu Kyi was just two when her father was assas-
sinatedandsubsequentlyspentmanyofheryoungeryearsabroad,firstinDelhi(whereher
mother,
Khin Kyi
, served as Burmese ambassador to India and Nepal) before studying at
Oxford University, where she met her future husband, the late distinguished Asian scholar
DrMichaelAris
. She subsequently worked for the UN in New York before marrying Aris
in 1971. They spent their first year of married life in Bhutan (where Aris was tutor to the
royal family), after which they returned to England, living in Oxford where Aris had been
madeauniversitylecturer.Meanwhile,AungSanSuuKyicontinuedherstudiesatLondon
University's School of Oriental and African Studies and also became the mother of two
sons.
THE STRUGGLE BEGINS
The spectacular rise to global prominence of the formerly bookish and retiring wife of an
Oxford don followed a remarkably serendipitous chain of events. In 1988, Aung San Suu
Kyireturned toYangontocare forhersick mother,whohadbeen admitted tothe Rangoon
General Hospital. Within weeks of her return, Aung San Suu Kyi found herself caught up
in the greatest popular
uprising
in modern Burmese history, with the hospital itself at the
epicentre of events. Swept along in the sudden political upheavals, she determined to de-
vote herself to the fight for democracy, espousing
political beliefs
rooted in non-violent
resistance, dialogue, reconciliation and inclusivity, which owed much to the ideas of Ma-
hatma Gandhi as well as her own Buddhist faith. Her first official
public speech
, at the
Shwedagon Pagoda, was attended by thousands of Burmese whose imaginations had been
fired by the unexpected return of Aung San's own daughter at the hour of their greatest
need, while opposition activists began to see in Aung San Suu Kyi the perfect figurehead
fortheiraspirations-thedaughterofthecountry'sgreatestnationalhero,andsomeoneen-
tirely untainted by former political or military connections.
HOUSE ARREST
The 8888 Uprising itself was soon brutally crushed. Undeterred, Aung San Suu Kyi estab-
lished the
National League for Democracy
(NLD) in September 1988 with former emin-
ent generals turned regime opponents Aung Gyi and Tin Oo. Her newly launched political
