Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. The decision of the Nobel Committee mentions
“The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 1991 to Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar (Burma) for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights.
...Suu Kyi's struggle is one of the most extraordinary examples of civil courage in Asia in recent decades. She has become an important symbol in the struggle against oppression...
...In awarding the Nobel Peace Prize for 1991 to Aung San Suu Kyi, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to honour this woman for her unflagging efforts and to show its support for the many people throughout the world who are striving to attain democracy, human rights and ethnic conciliation by peaceful means”
— Oslo, 14 October 1991
On 19 February 2008, nine Nobel Peace prize winners (Archbishop Desmond Tutu, The Dalai Lama, Shirin Ebadi, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Mairead Corrigan, Rigoberta Menchú, Prof. Elie Wiesel, Betty Williams and Jody Williams) released a statement calling for the rulers of Burma to "create the necessary conditions for a genuine dialogue with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all concerned parties and ethnic groups in order to achieve an inclusive national reconciliation with the direct support of the United Nations."
Some of the money she received as part of the award helps fund London-based charity Prospect Burma, who provide higher education grants to Burmese students.
Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi Meets with Lawyers
By VOA News
30 May 2009
Aung San Suu Kyi (file photo)
30 May 2009
Aung San Suu Kyi (file photo)
Aung San Suu Kyi's lawyer says Burmese military authorities allowed the detained opposition leader to meet with her defense team for two hours Saturday in Rangoon's notorious Insein prison.
Attorney Kyi Win told VOA Burmese Service that the Nobel peace laureate is in good health.A spokesman for her National League for Democracy Party, Nyan Win, also said the court has postponed final arguments in Aung San Suu Kyi's trial from next Monday to next Friday.
He said no reasons were given for the delay.Aung San Suu Kyi is on trial for allegedly violating the terms of her house arrest.U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, speaking in Singapore Saturday, called on Burma's military government to release the pro-democracy leader and to begin a dialogue with the opposition.
Saturday marks the sixth anniversary of a deadly attack on a motorcade carrying Aung San Suu Kyi, an event known as the Depayin massacre.The trial against Aung San Suu Kyi stems from a visit by an intruder who swam to her lakeside home in early May and stayed overnight.
The American intruder, John Yettaw, is also on trial. If convicted, Aung San Suu Kyi could be sentenced to a prison term of up to five years. She has spent 13 of the past 19 years under house arrest. The sole defense witness allowed to testify argued in court Thursday that it was the job of government guards outside Aung San Suu Kyi's home to keep intruders out.
Burma's military government lashed out Thursday at foreign critics of the trial. Deputy foreign minister Maung Myint said during a Europe-Asia summit in Cambodia that the trial is an internal legal issue, not linked to politics or human rights.
The international community has condemned the trial as a pretext to extend the opposition leader's house arrest and bar her from elections next year.
Attorney Kyi Win told VOA Burmese Service that the Nobel peace laureate is in good health.A spokesman for her National League for Democracy Party, Nyan Win, also said the court has postponed final arguments in Aung San Suu Kyi's trial from next Monday to next Friday.
He said no reasons were given for the delay.Aung San Suu Kyi is on trial for allegedly violating the terms of her house arrest.U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, speaking in Singapore Saturday, called on Burma's military government to release the pro-democracy leader and to begin a dialogue with the opposition.
Saturday marks the sixth anniversary of a deadly attack on a motorcade carrying Aung San Suu Kyi, an event known as the Depayin massacre.The trial against Aung San Suu Kyi stems from a visit by an intruder who swam to her lakeside home in early May and stayed overnight.
The American intruder, John Yettaw, is also on trial. If convicted, Aung San Suu Kyi could be sentenced to a prison term of up to five years. She has spent 13 of the past 19 years under house arrest. The sole defense witness allowed to testify argued in court Thursday that it was the job of government guards outside Aung San Suu Kyi's home to keep intruders out.
Burma's military government lashed out Thursday at foreign critics of the trial. Deputy foreign minister Maung Myint said during a Europe-Asia summit in Cambodia that the trial is an internal legal issue, not linked to politics or human rights.
The international community has condemned the trial as a pretext to extend the opposition leader's house arrest and bar her from elections next year.
Political beginnings
Aung San Suu Kyi returned to Burma in 1988 to take care of her ailing mother. By coincidence, in the same year, the long-time leader of the Socialist ruling party, General Ne Win, stepped down, leading to mass demonstrations for democracy on 8 August 1988 (8-8-88, a day seen as auspicious), which were violently suppressed. On August 26, 1988, she addressed half a million people at a mass rally in front of the Shwedagon Pagoda in the capital, calling for a democratic government.[8] However in September, a new military junta took power. Later the same month, the National League for Democracy (NLD) was formed, with Suu Kyi as general secretary.
Influenced by both Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence
and by more specifically Buddhist concepts, Aung San Suu Kyi entered politics to work for democratization, helped found the National League for Democracy on 27 September 1988, and was put under house arrest on 20 July 1989. She was offered freedom if she left the country, but she refused.
One of her most famous speeches is the "Freedom From Fear" speech, which begins:
It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.
Influenced by both Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence
and by more specifically Buddhist concepts, Aung San Suu Kyi entered politics to work for democratization, helped found the National League for Democracy on 27 September 1988, and was put under house arrest on 20 July 1989. She was offered freedom if she left the country, but she refused.
One of her most famous speeches is the "Freedom From Fear" speech, which begins:
It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.
Personal life-Aung San
Aung San Suu Kyi was born on 19 June 1945 in Rangoon. Her father, Aung San, founded the modern Burmese army and negotiated Burma's independence from the United Kingdom in 1947; he was assassinated by his rivals in the same year. She grew up with her mother, Khin Kyi, and two brothers, Aung San Lin and Aung San Oo in Rangoon. Her favourite brother Aung San Lin drowned in a pool accident when Suu Kyi was eight. Her elder brother migrated to San Diego, California, becoming a United States citizen. Suu Kyi was educated in English Catholic schools for much of her childhood in Burma.
Daw Khin Kyi gained prominence as a political figure in the newly-formed Burmese government. She was appointed Burmese ambassador to India and Nepal in 1960, and Aung San Suu Kyi followed her there, graduating from Lady Shri Ram College with a degree in politics in New
Delhi in 1964.
Aung San Suu Kyi continued her education at St Hugh's College, Oxford, obtaining a B.A. degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics in 1969 and a Ph.D. at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London in 1985. She was elected an Honourary Fellow in 1990.[8] She also worked for the government of the Union of Myanmar.
In 1972, Aung San Suu Kyi married Dr. Michael Aris, a scholar of Tibetan culture, living abroad in Bhutan. The following year she gave birth to their first son, Alexander Aris, in London; their second son, Kim, was born in 1977. In 1988 Suu Kyi returned to Burma at first to tend for her ailing mother but later to lead the pro-democracy movement. Michael’s visit in Christmas 1995 turned out to be the last time that Suu Kyi and Michael met, as Suu Kyi remained in Burma and the Burmese dictatorship denied him any further entry visas.[8] Michael was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997 which was later found to be terminal. Despite appeals from prominent figures and organizations, including the United States, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Pope John Paul II, the Burmese government would not grant Michael a visa, saying that they did not have the facilities to care for him, and instead urged Aung San Suu Kyi to leave the country to visit him. She was at that time temporarily free from house arrest but was unwilling to depart, fearing that she would be refused re-entry if she left, as she did not trust the junta's assurance that she could return.
Michael died on his 53rd birthday on March 27, 1999. Since 1989, when his wife was first placed under house arrest, he had seen her only five times, the last of which was for Christmas in 1995. She also remains separated from her children, who live in the United Kingdom.
She is a Theravada Buddhist.
On 2 May 2008, after Cyclone Nargis hit Burma, Suu Kyi lost her roof and was living in virtual darkness after losing electricity in her dilapidated lakeside residence. She used candles at night as she was not provided any generator set.
Daw Khin Kyi gained prominence as a political figure in the newly-formed Burmese government. She was appointed Burmese ambassador to India and Nepal in 1960, and Aung San Suu Kyi followed her there, graduating from Lady Shri Ram College with a degree in politics in New
Delhi in 1964.
Aung San Suu Kyi continued her education at St Hugh's College, Oxford, obtaining a B.A. degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics in 1969 and a Ph.D. at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London in 1985. She was elected an Honourary Fellow in 1990.[8] She also worked for the government of the Union of Myanmar.
In 1972, Aung San Suu Kyi married Dr. Michael Aris, a scholar of Tibetan culture, living abroad in Bhutan. The following year she gave birth to their first son, Alexander Aris, in London; their second son, Kim, was born in 1977. In 1988 Suu Kyi returned to Burma at first to tend for her ailing mother but later to lead the pro-democracy movement. Michael’s visit in Christmas 1995 turned out to be the last time that Suu Kyi and Michael met, as Suu Kyi remained in Burma and the Burmese dictatorship denied him any further entry visas.[8] Michael was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997 which was later found to be terminal. Despite appeals from prominent figures and organizations, including the United States, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Pope John Paul II, the Burmese government would not grant Michael a visa, saying that they did not have the facilities to care for him, and instead urged Aung San Suu Kyi to leave the country to visit him. She was at that time temporarily free from house arrest but was unwilling to depart, fearing that she would be refused re-entry if she left, as she did not trust the junta's assurance that she could return.
Michael died on his 53rd birthday on March 27, 1999. Since 1989, when his wife was first placed under house arrest, he had seen her only five times, the last of which was for Christmas in 1995. She also remains separated from her children, who live in the United Kingdom.
She is a Theravada Buddhist.
On 2 May 2008, after Cyclone Nargis hit Burma, Suu Kyi lost her roof and was living in virtual darkness after losing electricity in her dilapidated lakeside residence. She used candles at night as she was not provided any generator set.
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