Description

When a military junta took power in Myanmar (then called Burma) in 1988, Aung San Suu Kyi - the daughter of General Aung San, who negotiated Burma's independence from Britain in 1947 - entered Burmese politics to work for democratization. Heavily influenced by Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolent protest, Suu Kyi helped found the National League for Democracy. When the military junta held general elections in 1990, the National League won easily, and Suu Kyi should have assumed the position of prime minister. Instead, the military nullified the election, and she was placed under house arrest after refusing to leave the country. Suu Kyi was still in confinement when she was awarded the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. She has subsequently been in and out of house arrest, despite appeals from international organizations, including the United Nations, to free her permanently.