Difference between revisions of "Aung San Suu Kyi" - New World Encyclopedia
Mary Anglin (talk | contribs) |
Mary Anglin (talk | contribs) (change subtitle) |
||
| Line 14: | Line 14: | ||
As a symbol of heroic and peaceful resistance in the face of oppression, Aung San Suu Kyi has come to be regarded by many in Burma and around the world as the Nelson Mandela of south-east Asia.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/895926.stm] | As a symbol of heroic and peaceful resistance in the face of oppression, Aung San Suu Kyi has come to be regarded by many in Burma and around the world as the Nelson Mandela of south-east Asia.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/895926.stm] | ||
| − | == | + | ==Early Life and Education== |
Suu Kyi was two years old when her father, [[Aung San]], then the de facto prime minister of what would shortly become independent Burma, was assassinated. He had negotiated Burma's independence from the [[United Kingdom]] in 1947, and was assassinated by rivals later that same year. [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9011270] | Suu Kyi was two years old when her father, [[Aung San]], then the de facto prime minister of what would shortly become independent Burma, was assassinated. He had negotiated Burma's independence from the [[United Kingdom]] in 1947, and was assassinated by rivals later that same year. [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9011270] | ||
| Line 30: | Line 30: | ||
That July 23rd, General Ne Win announced that he was resigning and that a referendum on the country's political future would be held. Suu Kyi, like the country, was elated. | That July 23rd, General Ne Win announced that he was resigning and that a referendum on the country's political future would be held. Suu Kyi, like the country, was elated. | ||
| − | At 8:08 a.m. on Aug. 8, 1988 — known as the "Four Eights," or 8/8/88, a date the Burmese had chosen for its numerological significance — a nationwide pro-democracy strike was called. Hundreds of thousands of students, civil servants and monks poured into the streets, ecstatic with the prospect of an end to one-party rule. Around midnight, President Sein Lwin ordered troops to fire | + | At 8:08 a.m. on Aug. 8, 1988 — known as the "Four Eights," or 8/8/88, a date the Burmese had chosen for its numerological significance — a nationwide pro-democracy strike was called. Hundreds of thousands of students, civil servants and monks poured into the streets, ecstatic with the prospect of an end to one-party rule. Around midnight, President Sein Lwin ordered troops to fire.[http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A18107-2003Oct12¬Found=true] |
In the aftermath, Suu Kyi wrote an open letter to the government, proposing a committee be formed to take the country toward multiparty elections. She then delivered a speech to a crowd of 100,000 that was to propel her onto the political stage.[http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A18107-2003Oct12¬Found=true] | In the aftermath, Suu Kyi wrote an open letter to the government, proposing a committee be formed to take the country toward multiparty elections. She then delivered a speech to a crowd of 100,000 that was to propel her onto the political stage.[http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A18107-2003Oct12¬Found=true] | ||
| Line 43: | Line 43: | ||
==Detention in Myanmar== | ==Detention in Myanmar== | ||
| − | + | The more the people seemed to exalt Suu Kyi, the more the military seemed to fear her. On July 20, 1989 soldiers surrounded the home of NLD party chairman, U Tin Oo, cut the phone lines and barred him from leaving. When Suu Kyi received word of this, she arranged for a friend to care for her children, knowing that her arrest would soon follow. That afternoon, soldiers barged into the compound, seized 40 NLD members,and trucked them off to the notorious Insein Prison. At 4 p.m. a military official arrived and read a detention order to Suu Kyi. Her husband Michael, who had been in Scotland for his father's funeral, hurried to Rangoon to find his wife on Day 3 of a hunger strike, demanding that she be taken to prison to be with her colleagues. For 12 days she accepted only water, relenting when a military officer assured her that the imprisoned activists would be treated humanely.[http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A18107-2003Oct12¬Found=true] | |
| − | + | Though under house arrest for a year, Suu Kyi, won the majority of votes in the national elections in 1990. The ruling junta refused to recognize the result and responded by systematically harassing and sentencing to long prison terms members of the NLD and other opposition parties as well as student activists. | |
| − | She was | + | She was released from house arrest six years later in July 1995, although it was made clear that if she left the country to visit her family in the United Kingdom, she would be denied re-entry. When her husband Michael, a British citizen, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997, the Burmese government denied him an entry visa. Aung San Suu Kyi remained in Burma, and never again saw her husband, who died in March 1999. She remains separated from their children, who remain in the United Kingdom. |
| − | + | She was repeatedly prevented from meeting with her party supporters, and in September 2000 was again put under house arrest. On May 6, 2002, following secret confidence-building negotiations led by the United Nations, she was released; a government spokesman said that she was free to move "because we are confident that we can trust each other". Suu Kyi proclaimed "a new dawn for the country". However on May 30, 2003, her caravan was attacked in the northern village of Depayin by a government-sponsored mob, murdering and wounding many of her supporters. She fled the scene with the help of her driver, Ko Kyaw Soe Lin, but was arrested upon reaching Ye-U. She was imprisoned at Insein Prison in Yangon. After receiving a hysterectomy in September 2003, she was again placed under house arrest in Yangon. | |
| − | + | In March 2004, [[Razali Ismail]], UN special envoy to Myanmar, met with Aung San Suu Kyi. Ismail resigned from his post the following year, partly because he was denied re-entry to Myanmar on several occasions. | |
| − | On [[November 28 | + | On May 28 2004, the United Nations Working Group for Arbitrary Detention rendered an Opinion (No. 9 of 2004) that her deprivation of liberty was arbitrary, as being in contravention of Article 9 of the [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]] 1948, and requested that the authorities in Burma set the prisoner free, but the authorities have so far ignored this request. |
| + | |||
| + | On November 28, 2005, the National League for Democracy confirmed that Suu Kyi's house arrest would be extended for yet another year. Many western countries, as well as the [[United Nations]], have expressed their disapproval of this latest extension. On May 20, 2006, Ibrahim Gambari, United Nations Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs, met with Aung San Suu Kyi, the first visit by a foreign official since 2004.<ref>{{cite web|date=20 May 2006 |url=http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=18557&Cr=Myanmar&Cr1= |title=After meeting Aung San Suu Kyi, UN envoy leaves Myanmar |publisher=United Nations |accessdate=22 May |accessyear=2006}}</ref> Suu Kyi's house arrest term was set to expire 27 May 2006, but the Burmese government extended it for another year,<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=99467 |publisher=Bangkok Post |title=Burma extends Suu Kyi detention |date=2006, May 27}}</ref> flouting a direct appeal from U.N. General Secretary [[Kofi Annan]] to [[Than Shwe]]. Suu Kyi continues to be imprisoned under the 1975 State Protection Act (Article 10 b), which grants the government the power to imprison persons for up to five years without a trial.<ref>{{cite news|author=The Irrawaddy |url=http://www.irrawaddy.org/aviewer.asp?a=5798&z=154 |title=Opposition Condemns Extension of Suu Kyi’s Detention |publisher=The Irrawaddy|date=[[2006-05-27]] |accessdate=2006-05-27 }}</ref> On 9 June 2006, Suu Kyi was hospitalised with severe diarrhea and weakness, as reported by a UN representative for [[National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma]].<ref>{{cite news|first=Nick |last=Wadhams|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/09/AR2006060901000.html |title=Myanmar's Suu Kyi Hospitalized |work=The Associated Press |publisher=[[Washington Post]] |date=[[2006-06-09]] |accessdate=2006-06-09 }}</ref> Such claims were rejected by Major-General [[Khin Yi]], the national police chief of Myanmar. | ||
==Beliefs== | ==Beliefs== | ||
Heavily influenced by [[Mahatma Gandhi]]'s philosophy of nonviolence, Aung San Suu Kyi entered politics to work for democratisation, helped found the [[National League for Democracy]] on [[September 27]], [[1988]], and was put under [[house arrest]] on July 20, 1989. She was offered freedom if she would leave the country, but she refused. | Heavily influenced by [[Mahatma Gandhi]]'s philosophy of nonviolence, Aung San Suu Kyi entered politics to work for democratisation, helped found the [[National League for Democracy]] on [[September 27]], [[1988]], and was put under [[house arrest]] on July 20, 1989. She was offered freedom if she would leave the country, but she refused. | ||
| − | + | ==International supporters== | |
| + | |||
In 2001, Irish rock band [[U2]] released the single ''[[Walk On (song)|Walk On]]'', which was written about and dedicated to Aung San Suu Kyi. "Walk On" was banned by the junta. During concerts in [[London]] and [[Glasgow]] ([[June 19]] and [[June 21]] 2005 respectively) U2 dedicated performances of "Running to Stand Still" to Aung San Suu Kyi. Other artists such as [[Coldplay]], [[R.E.M. (band)|R.E.M.]], and [[Damien Rice]] have also publicly supported Aung San Suu Kyi's cause. | In 2001, Irish rock band [[U2]] released the single ''[[Walk On (song)|Walk On]]'', which was written about and dedicated to Aung San Suu Kyi. "Walk On" was banned by the junta. During concerts in [[London]] and [[Glasgow]] ([[June 19]] and [[June 21]] 2005 respectively) U2 dedicated performances of "Running to Stand Still" to Aung San Suu Kyi. Other artists such as [[Coldplay]], [[R.E.M. (band)|R.E.M.]], and [[Damien Rice]] have also publicly supported Aung San Suu Kyi's cause. | ||
Revision as of 16:24, 22 June 2006
Template:Politics of Myanmar 100px;
The beloved leader of Burma's democracy movement, Aung San Suu Kyi (often affectionately referred to as either "Aunty", or "The Lady") was born June 19, 1945 in what was then known as Rangoon, Burma (now: Yangon, Myanmar). Suu Kyi is a nonviolent pro-democracy activist and leader of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar (Burma). A devout Buddhist, Suu Kyi won the Rafto Prize and the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1990 and in 1991 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her peaceful and non-violent struggle under a repressive military dictatorship.
In Burma, where parents almost never name their children after themselves, Gen. Aung San, the country's founding father, broke with all tradition. Not only did he name his first two sons after himself, Aung San Oo and Aung San Lin, he gave his name to his only daughter. Aung San is a muscular name, one that means victory.
To add softness and balance, he drew from his mother's name, Suu, and from his wife's name, Kyi. Strung together like pearls, the name, Aung San Suu Kyi (pronounced "Ong Sahn Soo Chee"), is an unusual name, meaning a bright collection of strange victories.
The child was aware of the weight of her name, even a bit embarrassed by its length and masculine sound. But as she grew, she would become ever more aware of the power of her name, and the destiny it carried.[1]
As a symbol of heroic and peaceful resistance in the face of oppression, Aung San Suu Kyi has come to be regarded by many in Burma and around the world as the Nelson Mandela of south-east Asia.[2]
Early Life and Education
Suu Kyi was two years old when her father, Aung San, then the de facto prime minister of what would shortly become independent Burma, was assassinated. He had negotiated Burma's independence from the United Kingdom in 1947, and was assassinated by rivals later that same year. [3]
Suu Kyi lived with her mother Khin Kyi and two brothers Aung San Lin and Aung San U in Rangoon. One of her brothers, Aung San Lin, died in an accidental drowning when Suu Kyi was eight. Meanwhile, her mother Khin Kyi gained prominence as a political figure in the newly-formed Burmese government.
She was educated in English Catholic schools for much of her childhood in Burma. When she was 15 years old her mother was appointed the Burmese Ambassador to India and Nepal. At that time she accompanied her mother to Delhi, where she studied politics at Delhi University. She graduated from Lady Shri Ram College for Women in New Delhi in 1964.[1]
From 1964 to 1967, Suu Kyi continued her education at St. Hugh's College, Oxford, obtaining a B.A. degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. This is where she met her future husband, Michael Aris.
Upon graduation, Suu Kyi furthered her education in New York, where she worked for the United Nations. In 1972, she married Michael Aris, a scholar of Tibetan culture, living abroad in Bhutan. The following year, in 1973, Suu Kyi gave birth to her first son, Alexander, in London. In 1977, she had her second child, Kim.
Political beginnings
After living outside of her home-country since her marriage, Aung San Suu Kyi returned to Myanmar in March 1988 to care for her mother who had suffered a severe stroke. Her husband and sons joined her later that summer.
That July 23rd, General Ne Win announced that he was resigning and that a referendum on the country's political future would be held. Suu Kyi, like the country, was elated.
At 8:08 a.m. on Aug. 8, 1988 — known as the "Four Eights," or 8/8/88, a date the Burmese had chosen for its numerological significance — a nationwide pro-democracy strike was called. Hundreds of thousands of students, civil servants and monks poured into the streets, ecstatic with the prospect of an end to one-party rule. Around midnight, President Sein Lwin ordered troops to fire.[4]
In the aftermath, Suu Kyi wrote an open letter to the government, proposing a committee be formed to take the country toward multiparty elections. She then delivered a speech to a crowd of 100,000 that was to propel her onto the political stage.[5]
The army cracked down again, killing thousands. On Sept. 18, martial law was declared. The ruling military junta named itself the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) (Renamed in 1997 as the State Peace and Development Council, or SPDC.)
The democracy activists formed their party, the National League for Democracy. Suu Kyi became general secretary and U Tin Oo, the elderly deputy, was named chairman. They began to campaign for the promised national elections.
In 1990, the military junta called general elections, which Suu Kyi's party, the NLD, won decisively; by gaining 82% of the vote, even though Suu Kyi had by that time been under house arrest for more than a year. Under normal circumstances, she would have assumed the office of Prime Minister.
The military regime, however, refused to relinquish power and stepped up repression of Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy.[6]
Detention in Myanmar
The more the people seemed to exalt Suu Kyi, the more the military seemed to fear her. On July 20, 1989 soldiers surrounded the home of NLD party chairman, U Tin Oo, cut the phone lines and barred him from leaving. When Suu Kyi received word of this, she arranged for a friend to care for her children, knowing that her arrest would soon follow. That afternoon, soldiers barged into the compound, seized 40 NLD members,and trucked them off to the notorious Insein Prison. At 4 p.m. a military official arrived and read a detention order to Suu Kyi. Her husband Michael, who had been in Scotland for his father's funeral, hurried to Rangoon to find his wife on Day 3 of a hunger strike, demanding that she be taken to prison to be with her colleagues. For 12 days she accepted only water, relenting when a military officer assured her that the imprisoned activists would be treated humanely.[7]
Though under house arrest for a year, Suu Kyi, won the majority of votes in the national elections in 1990. The ruling junta refused to recognize the result and responded by systematically harassing and sentencing to long prison terms members of the NLD and other opposition parties as well as student activists.
She was released from house arrest six years later in July 1995, although it was made clear that if she left the country to visit her family in the United Kingdom, she would be denied re-entry. When her husband Michael, a British citizen, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997, the Burmese government denied him an entry visa. Aung San Suu Kyi remained in Burma, and never again saw her husband, who died in March 1999. She remains separated from their children, who remain in the United Kingdom.
She was repeatedly prevented from meeting with her party supporters, and in September 2000 was again put under house arrest. On May 6, 2002, following secret confidence-building negotiations led by the United Nations, she was released; a government spokesman said that she was free to move "because we are confident that we can trust each other". Suu Kyi proclaimed "a new dawn for the country". However on May 30, 2003, her caravan was attacked in the northern village of Depayin by a government-sponsored mob, murdering and wounding many of her supporters. She fled the scene with the help of her driver, Ko Kyaw Soe Lin, but was arrested upon reaching Ye-U. She was imprisoned at Insein Prison in Yangon. After receiving a hysterectomy in September 2003, she was again placed under house arrest in Yangon.
In March 2004, Razali Ismail, UN special envoy to Myanmar, met with Aung San Suu Kyi. Ismail resigned from his post the following year, partly because he was denied re-entry to Myanmar on several occasions.
On May 28 2004, the United Nations Working Group for Arbitrary Detention rendered an Opinion (No. 9 of 2004) that her deprivation of liberty was arbitrary, as being in contravention of Article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, and requested that the authorities in Burma set the prisoner free, but the authorities have so far ignored this request.
On November 28, 2005, the National League for Democracy confirmed that Suu Kyi's house arrest would be extended for yet another year. Many western countries, as well as the United Nations, have expressed their disapproval of this latest extension. On May 20, 2006, Ibrahim Gambari, United Nations Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs, met with Aung San Suu Kyi, the first visit by a foreign official since 2004.[2] Suu Kyi's house arrest term was set to expire 27 May 2006, but the Burmese government extended it for another year,[3] flouting a direct appeal from U.N. General Secretary Kofi Annan to Than Shwe. Suu Kyi continues to be imprisoned under the 1975 State Protection Act (Article 10 b), which grants the government the power to imprison persons for up to five years without a trial.[4] On 9 June 2006, Suu Kyi was hospitalised with severe diarrhea and weakness, as reported by a UN representative for National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma.[5] Such claims were rejected by Major-General Khin Yi, the national police chief of Myanmar.
Beliefs
Heavily influenced by Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence, Aung San Suu Kyi entered politics to work for democratisation, helped found the National League for Democracy on September 27, 1988, and was put under house arrest on July 20, 1989. She was offered freedom if she would leave the country, but she refused.
International supporters
In 2001, Irish rock band U2 released the single Walk On, which was written about and dedicated to Aung San Suu Kyi. "Walk On" was banned by the junta. During concerts in London and Glasgow (June 19 and June 21 2005 respectively) U2 dedicated performances of "Running to Stand Still" to Aung San Suu Kyi. Other artists such as Coldplay, R.E.M., and Damien Rice have also publicly supported Aung San Suu Kyi's cause.
In 2003's MTV Europe Music Awards, she was given the "Free Your Mind" award.
On December 2, 2004, the United States pressured the Myanmar government to release Aung San Suu Kyi after the announcement that her house arrest would be extended.[6]
On June 17, 2005, several countries from around the world held protests outside Myanmar embassies, in recognition of Suu Kyi's 60th birthday, which took place on June 19, 2005. The protests received international attention.
In late November 2005, the United States again returned to diplomatic pressure, this time in the United Nations Security Council, strongly urging multilateral action to address the "deteriorating situation" in Myanmar, requesting to put it into the official agenda docket. This action was due largely to a reinstatement of Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest, an extension of precisely one year.
She is featured prominently in John Boorman's 1995 film Beyond Rangoon, starring Patricia Arquette.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been an honorary board member of International IDEA and ARTICLE 19 since her detention, and has received support from these organisations.
In a list compiled by the magazine New Statesman in 2006, she was voted as the number one "Hero of our time".[7]
The Vrije Universiteit Brussel, located in Belgium, has granted her the title of Doctor Honoris Causa.
St Hugh's College, Oxford, where she studied, had a Burmese theme for their annual ball in support of her in 2006.
Notes
- ↑ Aung San Suu Kyi — Biography. Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 4 May, 2006.
- ↑ After meeting Aung San Suu Kyi, UN envoy leaves Myanmar. United Nations (20 May 2006). Retrieved 22 May, 2006.
- ↑ "Burma extends Suu Kyi detention", Bangkok Post, 2006, May 27.
- ↑ The Irrawaddy. "Opposition Condemns Extension of Suu Kyi’s Detention", The Irrawaddy, 2006-05-27. Retrieved 2006-05-27.
- ↑ Wadhams, Nick, "Myanmar's Suu Kyi Hospitalized", The Associated Press, Washington Post, 2006-06-09. Retrieved 2006-06-09.
- ↑ US urges Burmese to free Suu Kyi. BBC News (2004-12-02). Retrieved 2006-05-22.
- ↑ Cowley, Jason, "Heroes of our time — the top 50", New Statesman, 2006-05-22. Retrieved 2006-05-22.
External links
- Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's WebSite
- The Burma Campaign UK Home Page
- Myanmar Agrees to Release Aung San Suu Kyi: Source
- An extensive story of her life
- Sunday Herald article about her ongoing detention
- The Nobel Peace Prize 1991
- Nobel Prize press release
- Aung San Suu Kyi Pages made by supporters from the Free Burma Coalition
- "Freed Burmese Democracy Leader Proclaims 'New Dawn'" by Seth Mydans, for The New York Times, May 7 2002, A3 (only abstract available)
- On the role of Buddhist meditation and contemplation in Aung San Suu Kyi's politics
- Nobel Laureates Call for Suu Kyi's Release - IFEX
- Damien Rice's page promoting his effort to have Aung San Suu Kyi released and also promoting the CD single Unplayed Piano by Rice and fellow singer Lisa Hannigan
- Article 19 Campaign for Aung San Suu Kyi
- Diplomacy Monitor-Aung San Suu Kyi
| |||||
zh-min-nan:Aung San Suu Kyi bg:Аун Сан Су Чи cs:Aung San Suu Kyi da:Daw Aung San Suu Kyi de:Aung San Suu Kyi et:Aung San Suu Kyi es:Aung San Suu Kyi fr:Aung San Suu Kyi id:Aung San Suu Kyi he:אונג סן סו קי ka:აუნგ სან სუ კი nl:Aung San Suu Kyi ja:アウン・サン・スー・チー no:Aung San Suu Kyi nn:Aung San Suu Kyi pl:Aung San Suu Kyi pt:Aung San Suu Kyi ro:Aung San Suu Kyi ru:Аун Сан Су Чжи sk:Aung San Suu Kyi fi:Aung San Suu Kyi sv:Aung San Suu Kyi th:ออง ซาน ซูจี vi:Aung San Suu Kyi zh:昂山素季
Credits
New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:
The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:
Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.
