Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi rose to prominence in the 8888 Uprising of 8 August 1988 and became the General Secretary of the NLD, which she had newly formed with the help of several retired army officials who criticised the military junta.

[16] Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party had won the November 2020 Myanmar general election, was arrested on 1 February 2021 following a coup d'état that returned the Tatmadaw to power and sparked protests across the country.

Between 1985 and 1987, Aung San Suu Kyi was working toward a Master of Philosophy degree in Burmese literature as a research student at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.

Despite appeals from prominent figures and organisations, including the United States, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Pope John Paul II, the Burmese government would not grant Aris 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.

[33] Influenced[50] by both Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence[51][52] and also by the Buddhist concepts,[53] Aung San Suu Kyi entered politics to work for democratisation, helped found the National League for Democracy on 27 September 1988,[54] but was put under house arrest on 20 July 1989.

[68] Although under house arrest, Aung San Suu Kyi was granted permission to leave Burma under the condition that she never return, which she refused: "As a mother, the greater sacrifice was giving up my sons, but I was always aware of the fact that others had given up more than me.

"[69] The media were also prevented from visiting Aung San Suu Kyi, as occurred in 1998 when journalist Maurizio Giuliano, after photographing her, was stopped by customs officials who then confiscated all his films, tapes and some notes.

[94] On 22 September 2007, although still under house arrest, Aung San Suu Kyi made a brief public appearance at the gate of her residence in Yangon to accept the blessings of Buddhist monks who were marching in support of human rights.

[95] It was reported that she had been moved the following day to Insein Prison (where she had been detained in 2003),[96][97][98][99] but meetings with UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari near her Rangoon home on 30 September and 2 October established that she remained under house arrest.

[127] On 18 August, United States President Barack Obama asked the country's military leadership to set free all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi.

[151] The state-run Việt Nam News said Vietnam had no criticism of Myanmar's decision 11 August 2009 to place Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest for the next 18 months, effectively barring her from elections scheduled for 2010.

[152] Nobel Peace Prize winners (Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, Shirin Ebadi, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Mairead Corrigan, Rigoberta Menchú, Prof. Elie Wiesel, US President Barack Obama, Betty Williams, Jody Williams and former US President Jimmy Carter) called for the rulers of Burma to release Aung San Suu Kyi to "create the necessary conditions for a genuine dialogue with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and all concerned parties and ethnic groups to achieve an inclusive national reconciliation with the direct support of the United Nations".

[159] The Hatoyama government which spent 2.82 billion yen in 2008, has promised more Japanese foreign aid to encourage Burma to release Aung San Suu Kyi in time for the elections; and to continue moving towards democracy and the rule of law.

[159][160] In a personal letter to Aung San Suu Kyi, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown cautioned the Burmese government of the potential consequences of rigging elections as "condemning Burma to more years of diplomatic isolation and economic stagnation".

[181] On 18 January 2012, Aung San Suu Kyi formally registered to contest a Pyithu Hluttaw (lower house) seat in the Kawhmu Township constituency in special parliamentary elections to be held on 1 April 2012.

[237] In a 2015 BBC News article, reporter Jonah Fisher suggested that Aung San Suu Kyi's silence over the Rohingya issue is due to a need to obtain support from the majority Bamar ethnicity as she is in "the middle of a general election campaign".

[244] On 4 September 2017, Yanghee Lee, the UN's special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, criticised Aung San Suu Kyi's response to the "really grave" situation in Rakhine, saying: "The de facto leader needs to step in—that is what we would expect from any government, to protect everybody within their own jurisdiction.

[245] The next day George Monbiot, writing in The Guardian, called on readers to sign a change.org petition to have the Nobel peace prize revoked, criticising her silence on the matter and asserting "whether out of prejudice or out of fear, she denies to others the freedoms she rightly claimed for herself.

"[248] On 13 September it was revealed that Aung San Suu Kyi would not be attending a UN General Assembly debate being held the following week to discuss the humanitarian crisis, with a Myanmar's government spokesman stating "perhaps she has more pressing matters to deal with".

[250] On 13 November 2017, Bob Geldof returned his Freedom of the City of Dublin award in protest over Aung San Suu Kyi also holding the accolade, stating that he does not "wish to be associated in any way with an individual currently engaged in the mass ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people of north-west Burma".

[273][274] As the journalists were then on trial for violating the Official Secrets Act, Aung San Suu Kyi's presumption of their guilt was criticised by rights groups for potentially influencing the verdict.

[273] Aung San Suu Kyi reacted to widespread international criticism of the verdict by stating: "I don't think anyone has bothered to read" the judgement as it had "nothing to do with freedom of expression at all", but the Official Secrets Act.

Volkan Bozkır, President of the UN General Assembly, also voiced his concerns, having tweeted "Attempts to undermine democracy and rule of law are unacceptable", and called for the "immediate release" of the detained NLD party leaders.

[286] On 28 April 2021, the National Unity Government (NUG), in which Aung San Suu Kyi symbolically retained her position, anticipated that there would be no talks with the junta until all political prisoners, including her, are set free.

[287] However, on 8 May 2021, the junta designated NUG as a terrorist organisation and warned citizens not to cooperate, nor to give aid to the parallel government, stripping Aung San Suu Kyi of her symbolic position.

[307] On 10 January 2022, the military court in Myanmar sentenced Suu Kyi to an additional four years in prison on a number of charges including "importing and owning walkie-talkies" and "breaking coronavirus rules".

The trials, which are closed to the public, the media, and any observers, were described as a "courtroom circus of secret proceedings on bogus charges" by the deputy director for Asia of Human Rights Watch.

[310] Citing unidentified sources, the BBC reported that Suu Kyi was also moved on 22 June from house arrest, where she had had close companions, to solitary confinement in a specially-built area inside a prison in Naypyidaw.

"[324] The life of Aung San Suu Kyi and her husband Michael Aris is portrayed in Luc Besson's 2011 film The Lady, in which they are played by Michelle Yeoh and David Thewlis.

[361][362] Irish songwriters Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan released in 2005 the single "Unplayed Piano", in support of the Free Aung San Suu Kyi 60th Birthday Campaign that was happening at the time.

Aung San Suu Kyi at her constituency in Kawhmu township during the 2012 by-election campaign
US Senator Jim Webb visiting Aung San Suu Kyi in 2009. Webb negotiated the release of John Yettaw , the man who trespassed in Aung San Suu Kyi's home.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi at a conference in London, during 5 countries tour of Europe, 2012
The ceremony of the Sakharov Prize awarded to Aung San Suu Kyi by Martin Schulz , inside the European Parliament 's Strasbourg hemicycle, in 2013
The 2009 celebration of Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday in Dublin, Ireland
Aung San Suu Kyi greeting supporters from Bago State in 2011
Aung San Suu Kyi addressing crowds at the NLD headquarters shortly after her release
Aung San Suu Kyi meeting with US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Yangon, December 2011
Aung San Suu Kyi (centre) giving a speech to the supporters during the 2012 by-election campaign at her constituency Kawhmu township, Myanmar on 22 March 2012
US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with Aung San Suu Kyi and her staff at her home in Yangon, 2012
Aung San Suu Kyi meeting Barack Obama at the White House in September 2012
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson meeting Aung San Suu Kyi in London, 12 September 2016
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting Aung San Suu Kyi in New Delhi, 24 January 2018
Aung San Suu Kyi with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha , 25 January 2018
Aung San Suu Kyi with Chilean President Sebastián Piñera , 14 November 2018
Aung San Suu Kyi with Indonesian President Joko Widodo , 22 June 2019
Protesters holding posters with the image of Aung San Suu Kyi during a demonstration against the military coup
Protesting teachers holding portraits of Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi with French Ambassador for Human Rights, François Zimeray
Aung San Suu Kyi on the cover of Ms. in 2012