Aung San Suu Kyi

Source of photo unknown

 

Aung San Suu Kyi, pronounced Ong San Soo Chee,

was born into a military family in Burma,

 or Myanmar, as it is commonly referred to today.

Burma, a country directly between China and India,

has a population of over 50 million people

whose principal religion is Buddhism.

 

Kyi became a keeper of her people much by default.

Her father, General Bogyoke Aung San, a National Hero

who was near to liberating the Country from English rule,

was assassinated when she was just two,

her baby brother drowned and her older brother

left the country to go live in America.

 

After her fathers murder, Suu Kyi's mother,

Daw Kin Kyi became deeply involved

in the country's Humanitarian rights

and was appointed Ambassador to India.

They then began to travel together extensively.

 

Suu Kyi was very well educated at multiple Universities,

 including Oxford.

 

When she went to New York to continue her studies,

she met fellow Burmese U. Tant, who was then

Secretary-General of the United Nations

and became his assistant.

 

Her marriage in 1972 to Tibetan scholar, Dr. Michael Aris,

whom she had met years earlier at a friends home,

would take her life in a new direction.

 

They traveled to Bhutan where he was a tutor to the Royal family

and would continue to travel and work together for several years.

She continued to write while her two sons were growing up.

 

In 1988, when Suu Kyi went home to take care of her very ill mother,

 the country began yet another violent, tumultuous trend,

propelling her into her first activities in politics.

 

Upon her mothers death in 1989,

Suu Kyi pledges that she will take over the work

started by her mother and father to promote and

protect the freedom of her people and her country,

thus beginning her life in and out of prison.

 

While she is imprisoned, the elections are held

giving an overwhelming victory to her party,

 the National League for Democracy, the NLD

of which she is the head.

 

But this election in 1990 and the clear results are

not recognized by the overthrown group, the SLROC,

and she remains jailed.

 

Suu Kyi receives numerous Human Rights Awards during

this period, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991,

and in 2000, the Presidential Medal Of Freedom Award,

which her sons must accept on her behalf,

as she refuses to leave the country for fear

that she will not be allowed to return.

A dedicated, lifelong peacekeeper, Aung San Suu Kyi,

is one of only nine women to win this prestigious award.  

 

World Wide demand begins to rapidly increase for

her release following these awards and in 1995

she is finally released from house arrest.

 

Her beloved husband succumbs to cancer in 1999.

He had not been allowed to see his wife since 1995

and they are not permitted to say goodbye.

She mourns his loss at home in Rangon

with those who came to comfort her.

 

Suu Kyi had remained apart for many years from

her two sons and her husband who lived in

England, to do what she believed was the

 best thing for her people and her country.

Her fight, her struggle, to bring Democracy back to the

people is the ultimate sacrifice any mortal can make.

 

At that time, Suu Kyi asked that the world not invest in,

nor travel to Burma, until there is peace once more

 and her people are given back their freedom.

She is determined, as was Gandhi,

that Peace and Democracy can be achieved

 through non violent means.

 

Suu Kyi's life today remains as ever in the hope that

outsiders will intervene in their struggle against

the oppressive Military Regime that has held

her Country hostage for over forty years

 and stop the slaughter of her people.

 

The Mother of Myanmar, as she is called by her people,

Suu Kyi now spends most of her time in prayer,

at her home on Inya Lake in Yangon,

the capital of Burma/Myanmar,

and means "end of the fight".

 

To date, Suu Kyi has served nearly 17 years

in and out of prison and under house arrest.

In similarity to one she admires, Mahatma Gandhi,

her containment has only fanned the fires of

those demanding Democracy, freedom and peace.

 

The strength that this remarkable woman has demonstrated

nearly her entire life should give each of us pause.

 Would any one of us be able to endure what she

has in the name of Freedom or Democracy?

Kyi's home on Inya Lake 54 University Avenue in Yangon

Photo by Steven Brookes

 

These final two web pages show how

the situation stands at this point.

Burma Dialogue

Burma Digest