BBC-Profile: Aung San Suu Kyi

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Wednesday, July 29, 1998 Published at 10:46 GMT 11:46 UK 

World: Asia-Pacific

Profile: Aung San Suu Kyi 

Arlene Gregorius looks back at the life and career of Nobel Peace Laureate,
Aung San Suu Kyi: 

Like the South African leader Nelson Mandela before her, Aung San Suu Kyi,
has come to be seen internationally as a symbol of heroic and peaceful
resistance in the face of oppression. 

She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1991, by which time she had
been under house arrest for two out of what was to become six years. 

Now aged 53, Suu Kyi is the daughter of the late Burmese nationalist
leader, General Aung San, whose resistance to British colonial rule
culminated in Burma's independence in 1948. 

After attending school in the Burmese capital Rangoon, Aung San Suu Kyi
lived in India, and then went to Britain for her University education. 

This is where she met and married her husband, Michael Aris, an Oxford
University academic. 

Already then, Michael Aris knew his wife's destiny might ultimately lie
with Burma. 

"Before we were married I promised my wife that I would never stand between
her and her country," he says. 

"Aung San Suu Kyi first came to prominence when she returned to Burma in
August 1988, with her husband and their two sons remaining in Britain. 

She became the leader of a burgeoning pro-democracy movement in the
aftermath of the brutal repression of a pro-democratic uprising earlier
that summer. 

Election 'victory' 

The movement quickly grew into a political party that went on to win an
overwhelming majority 82% percent in national elections in 1990, by which
time she had already been under house arrest for a year. 

The military regime, however, refused to relinquish power and stepped up
intensified repression of her party, the National League for Democracy. 

"Martin Smith, a writer on Burmese affairs, says there are several reasons
why Aung San Suu Kyi proved such a natural leader. 

"Her father was the founder of the democratic movement. So Suu Kyi in a way
had inherited that kind of tradition. 

"But the second thing is of course down to Aung San Suu Kyi herself, her
role in the democracy movement and her speeches about the need for change
in Burmese society. 

"And I think there is a further thing she very much had on her side - that
is her comparative youth in Burmese politics." 


Inspired by the non-violent campaigns of the American civil rights leader
Martin Luther King, and India's Mahatma Gandhi, Aung San Suu Kyi organised
rallies after her return to Burma, and travelled the country, calling for
peaceful democratic reforms and free elections. 

She campaigned for change through dialogue. After her release from six
years of house arrest in 1995, she defined what might actually produce the
talks that she wants: 

"We think that the strength of our movement is really in the country
itself. 

"It is in the will of the people and the great majority of people in Burma
want democracy. 

"We as the National League for Democracy and as part of the forces for
democracy, are always ready to work together with the authorities to
achieve national reconciliation and we would like to think that the
strength of our good will and the very strong desire of the people for
democracy will bring positive results." 

Despite Suu Kyi's official release from house arrest, there are still de
facto restrictions on her freedom to move and speak, and oppression of
pro-democracy activism continues. 

Burma's human rights record has been rated one of the worst in the world
after Algeria.