The Feisty Ones!!

As Shaban Azmi is bestowed with the Gandhi Peace Prize(while at home the Imam lambasts her for her remarks on the musilm dress code for women), and Andhra dame Renuka Choudhury creates ripples with her Domestic Violence Act,there's one frail young figure who carries on her relentless struggle sans gimmicks, frills and thrills, and in the face of utmost opposition. No, its no Indian I am talking about its the prominent political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi was only two years old when her father, Major General Aung San, a seminal figure of Burma’s struggle for independence, was assassinated on July 19, 1947. She attended schools in Burma until 1960, when her mother Daw Khin Kyi, a prominent Burmese diplomat, was appointed ambassador to India. After completing her graduation from Lady Sri Ram College, New Delhi in 1964, she headed to Oxford to earn a B.A in philosophy, politics and economics. It was here that she met her future husband Michael Aris, then a student of Tibetan civilization. In 1969 she went to New York for further studies but soon opted out, to work for the U.N. secretariat as Assistant Secretary, Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions. In 1972, Suu Kyi married Michael Aris, who was employed in the Translation Department in Bhutan. After a brief stint in Bhutan, Suu Kyi and her husband went back to England, where she gave birth to her sons Alexander and Kim.

Suu Kyi was leading a rather quiet life until 1988, when she returned to Burma to nurse her dying mother. Burma, was at that time witnessing a socio-political upheaval. Military strongman U Ne Win’s isolationist and repressive policies had made it one of the poorest countries in the world. Widespread antigovernment protests, the famous 8-8-88 uprising was balked by a severe military crackdown, killing thousands. Suu Kyi responded with an open letter to the government, asking for formation of a people’s consultative committee on multi party elections. On August 26 1988, she gave her first political address, outside Shwedagon Pagoda, calling for restoration of democracy. Her feverish appeal to the half-million crowd was the genesis of a burgeoning pro democracy movement that would later grow into a political party. However, the military soon established its unbinding power by forming the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC)-mounting its brutal attacks on peaceful protestors, banning political gatherings and imprisoning protestors without trial.

On September 24, 1988, the National league of Democracy (NLD) was formed with Suu Kyi becoming its general secretary. A staunch admirer of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr, Suu Kyi began her nonviolent struggle for democracy and human rights from the NLD platform. She traveled across the length and breadth of the country, urging for free elections, democratic reforms, and need for change in Burmese society. Despite a ban on her, and continuous harassment, and killings by the military junta she continued her struggle for peaceful resistance and civil disobedience. On July 20 1989, Suu kyi was placed under house arrest. Notwithstanding this grave setback, the NLD won a landslide victory, securing 82% of the seats in the elections of 1990. The military refused to give credence to the election results and instead bargained for her withdrawal from politics and a chance to leave the country. Su Kyi refused outright- and her detention was extended to a period of five years without charge or trial.

During this period Suu Kyi attracted widespread international attention and acclaim- She was invested with the Rafto Human Rights Prize (1990); the Sakharov human rights prize from the European parliament (1990) and the Nobel Peace Prize (1991). Already recognized as ‘a prisoner of conscience’ by Amnesty International (1988), her cause was taken up by fellow Nobel laureates and the UN Commission for Human Rights in 1993. On February 14, 1994 UNDP Resident Representative Jehan Raheem, US Congressman Bill Richardson and New York Times reporter Philip Shenon were allowed to meet Suu Kyi, her first non-family visitors.

Mounting international pressure compelled Gen. Than Shwe and Gen. Khin Nyunt of the SLORC to meet Su Kyi for the first time since her house arrest. She was released on July 10 1995, after six years of detention. After her release, she attended the NLD party congress and in 1998 announced the formation of a representative committee that she declared as the country's lawful ruling parliament. She has been widely videotaped and her statements recorded and sent out to the international community at large, including her keynote address to the NGO Forum at the U.N. International Women's Conference in Beijing in August 1995.

Despite the seemingly proactive developments, Suu Kyi and her party members continued to be harrased, their freedom to move and speak severely restricted. On March 27, 1999, her husband Michael Aris died of prostate cancer in London- his earnest pleas to the Burmese authorites to allow him to meet her for one last time were also rejected. She was once again placed under house arrest from September 2000 to May 2002. In 2003, amidst clashes between the NLD and pro-government demonstrators, her motorcade was attacked and Suu Kyi once again transferred to house arrest. On November 28, 2005, her detention was extended for yet another year despite widespread criticism from the international community, including U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and President Bush.