| Daw Aung San Suu Kyi 
Daughter of Burma’s national hero, General Aung San, Aung San Suu Kyi has always been dedicated to her father’s memory and his vision of a free and democratic Burma. After living in Oxford for many years, she returned to Burma in April 1988 to nurse her mother who had suffered a stroke. As the dramatic events of 1988 gathered pace and unarmed students and demonstrators fell to army bullets and bayonets, Aung San Suu Kyi could no longer stay silent. Addressing a huge public rally at the Shwe Dagon on August 26, she read out General Aung San’s objectives for the Burma Army: "The armed forces are meant for this nation and this people, and it should be such a force having the honour and respect of the people. If instead the armed forces should come to be hated by the people, then the aims with which this army has been built up would have been in vain."
Aung San Suu Kyi became secretary-general of the National League for Democracy in September 1988, and - despite the SLORC’s severe restrictions - campaigned throughout the country until placed under house arrest in July 1989. The National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in the May 27 1990 general elections (taking 392 of the 485 seats, as against the SLORC-backed National Unity Party’s 10 seats), but the SLORC clung on to power. In 1991 Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her fearless advocacy of achieving democracy and human rights by non-violent means. Released from house arrest in 1995, Aung San Suu Kyi declared that "nothing has changed" and renewed her call for dialogue with the military authorities and a peaceful transition to democratic rule. From: www.burmaproject.org |