"I've always thought that the best solution for those who feel helpless is for them to help others. I think then they will start feeling less helpless themselves." - Aung San Suu Kyi

In 1962, General Ne Win led a coup on the Burmese government and revoked the constitution, enacting a military dictatorship that led the country into unending turmoil. In August of 1988 thousands of people, primarily students and monks, came together to peacefully protest the military regime. They wanted democracy, peace, and an end to the oppressive rule they had endured for so long. In response to the protestors, the government created the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), and martial law was declared. SLORC Soldiers were ordered to meet the crowd at city hall and shoot them. The soldiers killed over 2,000 people. Aung San Suu Kyi, who had returned to Burma to care for her very sick mother, was enraged by the slaughtering of so many citizens. She decided to work for a democracy in Burma, just as her father had done until the day he died.

Aung San Suu Kyi began to speak out about the people of Burma standing up and organizing nonviolently to bring peace and democracy to Burma. Her supporters, under her leadership, started a new political party called the National League for Democracy (NLD). She and her party became very popular among the Burmese. In 1990, the regime agreed to hold elections in Burma. The NLD and Aung San Suu Kyi won the elections in a landslide--a victory that was actively ignored by the military regime.

Aung San Suu Kyi was put under house arrest before the elections took place. The regime completely cutting her off from the outside world, groceries were brought to her but all other visitors were strictly forbidden. Though she was regularly encouraged to leave Burma to visit her family, she refused, knowing that once she left, she would never be able to return to Burma. In 1991, Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Still under house arrest, her sons accepted the prize in her honor at the Nobel ceremony in Oslo, Norway.

In 1995 Suu Kyi received a brief reprieve and was released from house arrest; however, she was still told that if she were to leave the country, she would not be allowed to return.

In 1999, Suu Kyi’s husband, who she had not seen in many years, was suffering from prostate cancer. He petitioned the Burmese government to be able to travel to Burma to visit Aung San Suu Kyi one last time. The regime would not grant the visit, hoping that this would force Aung San Suu Kyi to leave the country to be at his side. She did not leave, and her husband died in England before he and Suu Kyi had a chance to see one another again. In 2000, Aung San Suu Kyi was restricted and again put under house arrest. She was briefly released two years later and allowed to travel inside Burma, but in May of 2003, after an assassination attempt in Depayin, she was arrested again and this time she was put in prison for four months. She remains under house arrest to this day, yet she does not give up hope that someday Burma will be free.

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