Thursday, June 21, 2007

It was Aung San Suu Kyi' birthday too

My wife found out out that the 19th of June was also the birthday of Aung Suu Kyi and proudly told me that I share my birthday with too many famous and great people. Although I know little about her before, working with people who come from Myanmar afford me to hear stories about her sometime.

Aung Suu Kyi is Burma's nonviolent pro-democracy activist and leader of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar (Burma), and a noted prisoner of conscience. A 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 military dictatorship.

In 1990, the military junta called a general election, which the National League for Democracy won decisively. Under normal circumstances, she would have assumed the office of Prime Minister. Instead, the results were nullified, and the military refused to hand over power. This resulted in an international outcry and partly led to Aung San Suu Kyi's winning the Sakharov Prize that year and the Nobel Peace Prize the following year in 1991. Her sons Alexander and Kim accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf. Aung San Suu Kyi used the Nobel Peace Prize's 1.3 million USD prize money to establish a health and education trust for the Burmese people.

Aung San Suu Kyi spent her 62nd birthday under house arrest o­n Tuesday while her supporters marked the event at her National League for Democracy’s headquarters in Rangoon.

According to Myint Thein, a spokesman for NLD, about 100 people—most likely from the government-backed Union Solidarity and Development Association and the “Swan Arr Shin,” a paramilitary group—were gathered outside NLD’s headquarters when Suu Kyi’s birthday was celebrated.Wikipedia and Irrawaddy News Magazine

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