Aung San Suu Kyi

**Aung San Suu Kyi** (born 19 June 1945 in Yangon, Burma) is a human rights activist, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and former State Counsellor of Myanmar.

Suu Kyi was not able to be president. Instead, she became the State Counsellor of Myanmar.
She brought some democracy to her country with nonviolence.
She is the leader of the National League for Democracy in Burma and a famous prisoner. She has been under house arrest several times. Suu Kyi won the Rafto Prize and the Sakharov Prize in 1990, and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. In 1992, she was awarded the Jawaharlal Nehru peace prize.

She is sometimes called _Daw Aung San Suu Kyi_. Daw is not part of her name, but a title for older women. This name shows respect for her. She is called **Amay Suu** by the people, meaning **Mother Suu**.

On 1 February 2021, Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested and removed from power by the military during a coup d'état. The military thought the government changed the results of the November 2020 Myanmar general election. On February 3, Suu Kyi was accused of breaking Myanmar's import laws. On February 16, Myanmar police filed a second criminal charge against her, this time for breaking the country's Natural Disaster Law. There were more charges and in December 2022 she was sentenced to 33 years in prison, later reduced to 27 years.

## Personal life

Aung San Suu Kyi was the third child in her family. Her name "Aung San" comes from her father, who is also named Aung San; "Kyi" comes from her mother; and "Suu" comes from her grandmother.

Her father helped to make Burma independent from the United Kingdom in 1947. He was killed in the same year. She grew up with her mother, Khin Kyi, and two brothers, Aung San Lin and Aung San Oo in Yangon. One of her brothers, Aung San Lin, drowned when Suu Kyi was eight. Her other brother, Aung San Oo currently lives in San Diego, California and is an American citizen.

Suu Kyi went to Catholic schools for much of her childhood in Burma. She learned English in school.

Khin Kyi, Suu Kyi's mother, became famous as a politician. She became the Burmese ambassador to India in 1960. Aung San Suu Kyi went to college in India at the Lady Shri Ram College for Women in New Delhi. Suu Kyi continued her education at St Hugh's College, Oxford, and learned about philosophy, politics, and economics. She also went to the School of Oriental and African Studies at University of London in the 1980s.

She moved to New York and worked at the United Nations. In 1972, Aung San Suu Kyi married Michael Aris (1946-1999), a professor of Tibetan culture who lived in Bhutan. She had met Aris when they were both students at Oxford. In 1973, she gave birth to her first son, Alexander, in Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in London; and in 1977 she had her second son, Kim also born at Queen Charlotte's and Cheslea Hospital in London.

## Political career

Aung San Suu Kyi returned to Burma in 1988 to take care of her sick mother. That year, the long-time leader of the socialist ruling party, General Ne Win, retired.

She admired Mohandas Gandhi's use of nonviolence. She was also inspired by Buddhism. Aung San Suu Kyi worked for democracy and helped make the National League for Democracy on September 27th 1988. Because Suu Kyi was working against the government, she was asked to leave the country, but she did not.

She was arrested in 1989 and placed in prison in 1990. This was after an election which her party, the National League for Democracy, won, but they were not allowed to be in charge of the country. Between 1990 and 2010, she was almost always in her home, which is called house arrest. Burma released her in November 2010. Suu Kyi was going to be released in 2009, but when a man entered her home she was kept on house arrest for another year because she had broken the rules of the house arrest.

After she was released from house arrest, she was elected to be State Counsellor. When she was State Counsellor, Burma had serious problems with the genocide of the Rohingya.

## Political belief

When she was asked what democratic models Myanmar could look to, she said: "We have many, many lessons to learn from various places, not just the Asian countries like South Korea, Taiwan, Mongolia and Indonesia". She also cited "the eastern European countries, which made the transition from communist autocracy to democracy in the 1980s and 1990s, and the Latin American countries, which made the transition from military governments". She added that "we wish to learn from everybody who has achieved a transition to democracy, and also (...) because we are so far behind everybody else, we can also learn which mistakes we should avoid."

### Authored

- _Letters from Burma_ (1998) with Fergal Keane
- _The Voice of Hope_ (1998) with Alan Clements,
- _Freedom from Fear and Other Writings_ (1995) with Václav Havel, Desmond M. Tutu, and Michael Aris,
- _Der Weg zur Freiheit_ (1999) with U Kyi Maung, U Tin Oo,
- _Letter to Daniel: Despatches from the Heart_ (1996) by Fergal Keane, foreword by Aung San Suu Kyi, edited by Tony Grant
- _Burma's Revolution of the Spirit: The Struggle for Democratic Freedom and Dignity_ (1994) with Alan Clements, Leslie Kean, The Dalai Lama, Sein Win
- _Aung San of Burma: A Biographical Portrait by His Daughter_ (1991) , 2nd edition 1995
- _Aung San (Leaders of Asia Series)_ (1990)
- _Burma and India: Some aspects of intellectual life under colonialism_ (1990)
- _Bhutan (Let's Visit Series)_ (1986)
- _Nepal (Let's Visit Series)_ (1985)
- _Burma (Let's Visit Series)_ (1985)

### Edited

- _Tibetan Studies in Honour of Hugh Richardson_. Edited by Michael Aris and Aung San Suu Kyi. (1979). Vikas Publishing house, New Delhi.

### Mentioned in

- _Aung San Suu Kyi (Modern Peacemakers)_ (2007) by Judy L. Hasday,
- _The Lady: Aung San Suu Kyi: Nobel Laureate and Burma's Prisoner_ (2002) by Barbara Victor, , or 1998 hardcover:
- _Perfect Hostage: A Life of Aung San Suu Kyi_ (2007) by Justin Wintle,
- _Tyrants: The World's 20 Worst Living Dictators_ (2006) by David Wallechinsky,
- _Aung San Suu Kyi (Trailblazers of the Modern World)_ (2004) by William Thomas,
- _No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs_ (2002) by Naomi Klein
- _Mental culture in Burmese crisis politics: Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy  (ILCAA Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa Monograph Series)_ (1999) by Gustaaf Houtman,
- _Aung San Suu Kyi: Standing Up for Democracy in Burma (Women Changing the World)_ (1998) by Bettina Ling
- _Aung San Suu Kyi: Fearless Voice of Burma (Newsmakers Biographies Series)_ (1997) by Whitney Stewart,
- _Prisoner for Peace: Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma's Struggle for Democracy (Champions of Freedom Series)_ (1994) by John Parenteau,
- _Des femmes prix Nobel de Marie Curie à Aung San Suu Kyi, 1903-1991_ (1992) by Charlotte Kerner, Nicole Casanova, Gidske Anderson,
- _Aung San Suu Kyi, towards a new freedom_ (1998) by Chin Geok Ang
- _Aung San Suu Kyi's struggle: Its principles and strategy_ (1997) by Mikio Oishi
- _Finding George Orwell in Burma_ (2004) by Emma Larkin

## Awards

- Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize (1990)
- Sakharov Prize (1991)
- Nobel Peace Prize (1991)
- Prize for Freedom of the Liberal International (1995)
- Freedom of City of Dublin, Republic of Ireland (1999)
- Presidential Medal of Freedom (2000)
- Jawaharlal Nehru Award (1993)
- Olof Palme Prize
- Companion of the Order of Australia (Australia's Highest Civil Honour)
- UNESCO Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance & Non-Violence  (2002)
- Four Freedoms Award in the category _Freemdom from fear_ (2006)
- Honorary Canadian citizenship, (2007)
- Congressional Gold Medal (2008)
- Honorary President of the LSESU
- Doctorate of Letters honoris causa from Colgate University

## Other websites

- Daw Aung San Suu Kyi Website
- US Campaign for Burma Website
- The Burma Campaign UK Website
- The Freedom Campaign  raising awareness through fashion, film, and music
- Free Suu Kyi.org

### Nobel Prize

- The Nobel Peace Prize 1991
- Nobel Prize press release
- The Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech of Aung San Suu Kyi's son Alexander Aris

## Infobox (officeholder)

- **honorific-prefix**: Her Excellency
- **name**: Aung San Suu Kyi
- **native name lang**: my
- **image**: Aung San Suu Kyi at the Enthronement of Naruhito (1).jpg
- **office**: 1st State Counsellor of Myanmar
- **president**: Htin Kyaw
Win Myint (politician), Win Myint
- **term start**: 6 April 2016
- **term end**: 1 February 2021
- **predecessor**: Thein Sein
- **office1**: Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Myanmar), Minister of Foreign Affairs
- **president1**: Htin Kyaw
Win Myint (politician), Win Myint
- **deputy1**: Kyaw Tin
- **term start1**: 30 March 2016
- **term end1**: 1 February 2021
- **predecessor1**: Wunna Maung Lwin
- **office2**: Office of the President of Myanmar, Minister of the President's Office
- **president2**: Htin Kyaw
Win Myint (politician), Win Myint
- **term start2**: 30 March 2016
- **term end2**: 1 February 2021
- **predecessor2**: Aung Min
Hla Tun
Soe Maung
Soe Thein
Thein Nyunt
- **office3**: President of the National League for Democracy
- **term start3**: 18 November 2011
- **predecessor3**: Aung Shwe
- **office4**: Opposition (Myanmar), Leader of the Opposition
- **president4**: Thein Sein
- **term start4**: 2 May 2012
- **term end4**: 29 January 2016
- **predecessor4**: Sai Hla Kyaw
- **office5**: General Secretary of the National League for Democracy
- **term start5**: 27 September 1988
- **term end5**: 18 November 2011
- **predecessor5**: Position established
- **successor5**: Position abolished
- **office6**: Member of the House of Representatives (Myanmar), Burmese House of Representatives
for Kawhmu Township, Kawhmu
- **term start6**: 2 May 2012
- **term end6**: 30 March 2016
- **predecessor6**: Soe Tint
- **successor6**: _Vacant_
- **majority6**: 46,73 (71.38%)
- **birth place**: Yangon, Rangoon, British rule in Burma, British Burma

- **party**: National League for Democracy
- **children**: 2, including Alexander Aris, Alex
- **parents**: Aung San
Khin Kyi
- **residence**: 54 University Avenue
- **alma mater**: University of Delhi
St Hugh's College, Oxford
SOAS, University of London, University of London
- **awards**: Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize, Rafto Prize
Sakharov Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
Jawaharlal Nehru Award
International Simón Bolívar Prize
Olof Palme Prize
Bhagwan Mahavir World Peace
Congressional Gold Medal
- **signature**: Aung San Suu Kyi signature 2013.svg