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Aung San Suu Kyi

An activist and leader of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar (Burma), Aung San Suu Kyi is a prisoner of conscience. She was heavily influenced by both Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence and Buddhist concepts. She earned a Ph.D. at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London in 1985.  In the 1990 general election, Suu Kyi won the votes to be Prime Minister, but her detention by the military junta prevented her from assuming that role. She won the ‘Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought’ in 1990 and in 1991 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

She is still under detention today, as the Myanmar government has repeatedly extending her detention. On May 16, 2007, 59 world leaders released a letter demanding that Myanmar’s military government free Suu Kyi. The signatories include former US presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, the former UK prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and former President of Poland, Lech Wałęsa, as well as many others. Artists such as U2, Black Eyed Peas, Coldplay, Damien Rice, and R.E.M. have also publicly supported Aung San Suu Kyi’s cause.

“It is often in the name of cultural integrity as well as social stability and national security that democratic reforms based on human rights are resisted by authoritarian governments.”

“The history of the world shows that peoples and societies do not have to pass through a fixed series of stages in the course of development.”

“Fear is not the natural state of civilized people.”

Human beings the world over need freedom and security that they may be able to realize their full potential.”

“The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.”

“We will surely get to our destination if we join hands.”

- Aung San Suu Kyi  (1945- )

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