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Aung San Suu Kyi (Burmese: Image:AungSanSuuKyi1.png; MLCTS: aung hcan: cu. krany; IPA: [àuɴ sʰáɴ sṵ tʃì]); born 19 June 1945 in Yangon (Rangoon), is a nonviolent pro-democracy activist and leader of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar (Burma), and a noted prisoner of conscience. A devout Buddhist, Suu Kyi won the Rafto Prize and the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1990 and in 1991 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her peaceful and non-violent struggle under a repressive military dictatorship.
Personal life
Khin Kyi gained prominence as a political figure in the newly-formed Burmese government. Khin Kyi was appointed as Burmese ambassador to India in 1960, and Aung San Suu Kyi followed her there, graduating from Lady Shri Ram College in New Delhi in 1964.[1] She continued her education at St Hugh's College, Oxford, obtaining a B.A. degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics in 1967. After graduation she continued her education in New York, and worked for the United Nations. In 1972, Aung San Suu Kyi married Michael Aris, a scholar of Tibetan culture, living abroad in Bhutan. The following year she gave birth to her first son, Alexander, in London; and in 1977 she had her second child, Kim. Political beginningsAung San Suu Kyi returned to Myanmar in 1988 to take care of her ailing mother. By coincidence, in that year, the long-time leader of the socialist ruling party, General Ne Win, stepped down, leading to mass demonstrations for democratisation on August 8, 1988 (8-8-88, a day seen as favorable), which were violently suppressed. A new military junta took power.
One of her most famous speeches is the "Freedom From Fear" speech, which begins:
Detention in MyanmarIn 1990, the military junta called general elections, which the National League for Democracy won decisively. Under normal circumstances, she would have assumed the office of Prime Minister.[2] Instead, the results were nullified, and the military refused to hand over power. This resulted in an international outcry and partly led to Aung San Suu Kyi's winning the Sakharov Prize that year and the Nobel Peace Prize the following year in 1991. Her sons Alexander and Kim accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf. Alexander's acceptance speech is linked in the External links section of this document. Aung San Suu Kyi used the Nobel Peace Prize's 1.3 million USD prize money to establish a health and education trust for the Burmese people. The military government released Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest in July 1995 but made it clear that if she left the country to visit her family in the United Kingdom, it would not allow her return. When her husband, Michael Aris, a British citizen, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997, the Burmese government denied him an entry visa. Aung San Suu Kyi remained in Burma, and never again saw her husband, who died in March 1999. She remains separated from their children, who live in the United Kingdom.[3] The military regime repeatedly prevented Aung San Suu Kyi from meeting with her party supporters and, in September 2000, it put her under house arrest again. On 6 May 2002, following secret confidence-building negotiations led by the United Nations, the regime released her; a government spokesman said that she was free to move "because we are confident that we can trust each other". Aung San Suu Kyi proclaimed "a new dawn for the country". However on 30 May 2003, a government-sponsored mob attacked her caravan in the northern village of Depayin, murdering and wounding many of her supporters.[4] Aung San Suu Kyi fled the scene with the help of her driver, Ko Kyaw Soe Lin, but was arrested upon reaching Ye-U. The regime imprisoned her at Insein Prison in Yangon. After undergoing a hysterectomy in September 2003,[5] the regime again placed her under house arrest in Yangon. In March 2004, Razali Ismail, UN special envoy to Myanmar, met with Aung San Suu Kyi. Ismail resigned from his post the following year, partly because he was denied re-entry to Myanmar on several occasions.[6] On 28 May 2004, the United Nations Working Group for Arbitrary Detention rendered an Opinion (No. 9 of 2004) that her deprivation of liberty was arbitrary, as being in contravention of Article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, and requested that the authorities in Burma set her free, but the authorities have so far ignored this request.[7] On 28 November 2005, the National League for Democracy confirmed that Suu Kyi's house arrest would be extended for yet another year. Many western countries, as well as the United Nations, have expressed their disapproval of this latest extension. On 20 May 2006, Ibrahim Gambari, UN Undersecretary-General (USG) of Department of Political Affairs, met with Aung San Suu Kyi, the first visit by a foreign official since 2004.[8] Suu Kyi's house arrest term was set to expire 27 May 2006, but the Burmese government extended it for another year,[9] flouting a direct appeal from U.N. General Secretary Kofi Annan to Than Shwe. Suu Kyi continues to be imprisoned under the 1975 State Protection Act (Article 10 b), which grants the government the power to imprison persons for up to five years without a trial.[10] On 9 June 2006, Suu Kyi was hospitalised with severe diarrhea and weakness, as reported by a UN representative for National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma.[11] Such claims were rejected by Major-General Khin Yi, the national police chief of Myanmar. On 11 November 2006, USG Gambari, who was undertaking a mission to Myanmar for four days to encourage greater respect for human rights there, met with Suu Kyi. According to Gambari, Suu Kyi seems in good health but she wishes to meet her doctor more regularly.[12] UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged the Burmese government to release Aung San Suu Kyi, as it released 2,831 prisoners, including 40 political prisoners, on 1 January 2007.[13] On 18 January 2007, the state-run paper The New Light of Myanmar accused Suu Kyi of tax evasion for spending her Nobel Prize money outside of the country. The accusation followed the defeat of a US-sponsored United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Myanmar as a threat to international security.[14] International supportersNationsOn December 2, 2004, the United States pressured the Myanmar government to release Aung San Suu Kyi after the announcement that her house arrest would be extended.[15] On June 17, 2005, there were protests outside Burmese embassies in several countries in recognition of Suu Kyi's 60th birthday, which took place on June 19, 2005. The protests received international attention. In late November 2005, the United States again returned to diplomatic pressure, this time in the United Nations Security Council, strongly urging multilateral action to address the "deteriorating situation" in Myanmar, requesting to put it into the official agenda docket. This action was due largely to a reinstatement of Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest, an extension of precisely one year. In September 2006, the United Nations Security Council voted to place Myanmar on the council's agenda. OrganizationsAung San Suu Kyi has been an honorary board member of International IDEA and ARTICLE 19 since her detention, and has received support from these organisations. The Vrije Universiteit Brussel, located in Belgium, has granted her the title of Doctor Honoris Causa.[16] In June of each year, the US Campaign for Burma organizes hundreds of "Arrest Yourself" house parties around the world in support of Aung San Suu Kyi. At these parties, the organizers keep themselves under house arrest for 24 hours, invite their friends, and learn more about Burma and Aung San Suu Kyi.[17] The Freedom Campaign, a joint effort between the Human Rights Action Center and US Campaign for Burma, looks to raise worldwide attention to the struggles of Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of Burma. St. Hugh's College, Oxford, where she studied, had a Burmese theme for their annual ball in support of her in 2006.[18] Aung San Suu Kyi is the official patron of The Rafto Human Rights House in Bergen, Norway. She received the Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize in 1990. She was made an honorary free person of the City of Dublin (capital of Ireland) in November 1999, although a space has been left on the roll of signatures to symbolize her continued detention. The Bommersvik DeclarationsIn Bommersvik, Sweden, in 1995 and 2002, two conventions of the Elected Representatives of the Union of Burma took place and the following two landmark declarations were issued:[19][20] Bommersvik Declaration IIn 1995, during the first convention that lasted from 16-23 July, the Representatives issued the Bommersvik Declaration I:[21]
Bommersvik Declaration IIIn 2002, during the second convention that lasted from 25 February to the 1st of March, the Representatives issued the Bommersvik Declaration II:[22]
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Notes
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