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Aung San Suu Kyi
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Aung San Suu Kyi
Source of photo unknown |
Aung San Suu Kyi
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.
The two then began to travel
together extensively.
Suu Kyi was very well
educated at multiple Universities,
including the
University of 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.
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Suu Kyi at the NGO Forum August 31, 1995
Photo credit:
US State Department |
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 15 of the past 21 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?
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Kyi's home on Inya Lake
Photo by Steven Brookes |
These final web
pages show how
the situation stands at this point.
Suu Kyi Released
Courageous Leader Released
Upcoming November 2010 Elections a Sham
Burma Dialogue
Burma Digest

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