Biography of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was born in Rangoon, Burma, on Jun 19, 1945.She is the daughter of Daw Khin Kyi, Burma’s only woman ambassador (to India and Nepal), and late national leader General Aung San, the architect of Burma’s independence, who was assassinated in Rangoon on July 19, 1947, along with six members of his pre-independence cabinet. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was educated in Rangoon until the age of 15 and continued her studies at Delhi University when she accompanied her Ambassador mother to New Delhi. She completed her BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics as at St. Hugh’s College, Oxford University, and was elected Honorary Fellow in 1990.From 1969 to 1971, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was the Assistant Secretary, Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, United Nations Secretariat, New York.

In 1972, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi worked as the Research Officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bhutan, ant got married to a British scholar Dr. Michael Aris. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has two sons, Alexander, born in London (1973), and Kim in Oxford in 1977.
She studied at the Center of Southeast Asia Studies, Kyoto University, as a visiting scholar (1985-86). In 1987, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi completed her fellowship at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Simla.

In 1988, Daw Aung Sang Suu Kyi returned to Burma to attend to her ailing mother. When nationwide mass demonstrations for democracy started in August, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi took a leading role in the movement, addressing half a million people at the famous Shwedagon rally on 23 August.

24 September 1988: The National League for Democracy (NLD) was founded with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as general secretary following an announcement by the military, which took control of the country in a18 September coup, that “fair and free” elections would be held on May 27 1990. In asserting control, the military gunned down hundreds of demonstrators and formed the State Law and Order Restoration Council.

July 1989: The military placed Daw Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest. Amnesty International declared Daw Aung San Suu Kyi a prisoner of conscience. (Under pressure from the junta and as a move to prevent the junta from using legal loopholes to ban the party, the NLD announced Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was no longer the general secretary of the party)

May 1990: Despite her continuing detention, and the arrest of other NLD leader, the party won the election by a landslide, securing 82 percent of the seats, but the military junta refused to honor the election results.

January 21,1994: The military junta announced that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi could be detained for up to six years under martial law. The regime said an extra year could be added if a three-member committee comprising the Ministers of Foreign Affairs. Home and Defense decided to do so.

February 21, 1994: For the first time, people from outside Daw Aung Sand Suu Kyi’s family were allowed to meet her. UN Resident Representative Jehan Raheem, US Congressman Bill Richardson and New York Times reporter Philip Shenon visited Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
September 20, 1994: Junta chairman Than Shwe and Lt Gen Khin Nyunt met Daw Aung San Suu Kyi for the first time since her house arrest.

July 10, 1995: Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest.

July 11, 1994: Daw Aung San Suu Kyi told reporters she was still dedicated to the restoration of democracy in Burma. She called for a dialogue between SLORC, democracy movement, and non-Burman ethnic nationality groups. She also urged foreign business thinking of investing in Burma to wait until democracy was restored.

October 10, 1995: The NLD defined junta’s ban on changes in party leadership position and reappointed her as the party’s General Secretary.

November 28, 1995: Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, saying that the NLD did not believe that the National Convention being held by the junta would lead the country to democracy, announced that the party was withdrawing from the National Convention.

March 27, 1999: Daw Aung San Suu Kyi husband Michael Aris died of prostrate cancer in London. His last request to visit Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, whom he had last seen in 1995, was rejected by the military junta which said if Daw Aung San Suu Kyi wanted to leave the country she could do so. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi refused the offer ot to leave her Rangoon home.

1996-2000: Daw Aung San Suu Kyi defied travel bans imposed against her and continually tried to leave for places outside Rangoon. In March 1996, she boarded the train bound for Mandalay but citing a “last minute problem” the coach she was in was left behind at the station. In July 1998 and August 1998, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi tried to meet NLD members outside Rangoon but police stopped her car on the road to Bassein. On both occasions, she was forced to spend days on the road. After several days they usually seize her car, force her to return home, and drive her car back.

In August 200, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was once again prevented from visiting NLD youth members in Dala. On 2 September, around 200 riot police surrounded Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s motorcade near Dala and forced them to return to Rangoon after a nine-day standoff. On 21 September, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and NLD Vice Chairman U Tin Oo were arrested together with their supporters when they tried to leave for Mandalay by train.

September 21, 2000: She went to the main railway station with vice chairman of the National League for Democracy(NLD), U Tin Oo, and a number of other party colleagues, planning to travel to the northern city of Mandalay. They have not been permitted to board a train, and still in the waiting room with the station itself surrounded by a heavy security presence, preventing visitors from entering the building. A number of opposition supporters have been taken away from the station in military vehicles. Earlier, the authorities blocked the road leading to her house,. The move is the latest challenge to restrictions on opposition movements imposed by the military authorities.

January 09, 2001: Daw Aung San Suu Kyi meets senior representatives of SPDC.

January 22, 2001: The Court in Myanmar has dismissed a suit by the estranged brother of opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi over ownership rights her home, in another sign the military is easing its crackdown on the pro-democracy figurehead.

April 12, 2001: A funeral was held Saturday in Yangon for Khin Gyi, elder sister of Myanmar democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s mother Khin Kyi, who died at age 93. Friends and relatives attended the funeral at the Yayway cementery, but Suu Kyi was not seen. Khin Gyi’s husband Thakin Than Tun, a communist leader, went underground in March 1984 and rose up in arms against the government three months after Myanmar gained independence from Britain. He died in the jungle in September 1968, assassinated by an aide.

April 28, 2001: More than 30 United States senators have warned President George W. Bush not to ease sanctions against Rangoon lest he send the wrong signal to the military regime as it continues closed-door talks with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The senators said in a letter to the President that any lifting of sanctions on investments could “remove the incentive for the regime to negotiate” with Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi. There was surprise this week when it appeared Japan had decided to reward the military regime merely for talking to the opposition leader by supplying aid to repair a Japanese-built hydro-power dam.

July 02, 2001: Regime Monday released the cousin of democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from jail, sources said, in the latest sign of progress in talks between the opposition and junta. Aye Win, a close aide to the Nobel peace laureate, was allowed to leave Yangon’s notorious Insein prison Monday after completing a five-year sentence.

August 26, 2001: Burma’s ruling military government released two prominent leaders from the National League for Democracy(NLD) yesterday evening just hours before Razali Ismail, UN special-envoy for Burma, arrived in Rangoon. U Aung Shwe and U Tin Oo, chairman and vice-chairman of the NLD, were released after spending over eleven months under house arrest that began last September. Although they have been released from house arrest, they are not able to leave Rangoon. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, U Aung Shwe, U Tin Oo and six other central committee members of the NLD were put under de facto house arrest after Suu Kyi defied a travel ban by trying to go to Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city, last Sept. 22, 2000. The six other committee members were released Dec.1.Suu Kyi remains confined to her lakeside home.

February 25, 2002: Burma’s Supreme Court heard an appeal from Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyers on Wednesday concerning the drawn-out lawsuit filed by her estranged brother regarding ownership of her home, according to her lawyers.

April 24, 2002: A top U.N, envoy Mr.Razali Ismail arrived in Myanmar on Tuesday to try to spur talks between the military junta and opposition which diplomats say may be the last chance for the generals to show they are serious about political change.

May 6, 2002: Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was freed today after 19 months of house arrest, the military government said in a breakthrough toward ending the country’s political deadlock. In a written statement released earlier, government spokesman Col.Hla Min said Monday would mark ” a new page for the people of Myanmar and the international community.” The statement did not mention Suu Kyi by name, but said: “We shall recommit ourselves to allowing all of our citizens to participate freely in the life of our political process, while giving priority to national unity, peace and stability of the country as well as the region.”
2003, May 31: Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been placed under temporary arrest and her pro-democracy party headquarters in Rangoon closed, the ruling military junta says.
2004, Feb 14: The military government has released U Tin Oo, the vice chairman of the opposition National League for Democracy for jail and placed him under house arrest. He was arrested in May last year together with dozens of fellow party members, including party leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, after an NLD convoy touring northern Burma was attacked by a pro-government mob.

2006, May 27: Myanmar’s military junta extended the house arrest one year.

2007, May 25: Myanmar’s military junta extended the house arrest one year again.
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