Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi (born 19 June 1945) is a Burmese politician, diplomat, and writer. She held the roles of State Counsellor of Myanmar and Union Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2016 until 2021. Since the National League for Democracy (NLD) was founded in 1988, she has been its general secretary, and she was listed as its chairperson during the years the party was legally active, from 2011 to 2023. She was a key figure in Myanmar’s shift from military rule to a limited democracy in the 2010s and is often considered the country’s de facto leader from 2016 to 2021. In 1991, she received the Nobel Peace Prize.

She is the youngest child of Aung San, regarded as the father of modern Myanmar, and Khin Kyi. Born in Rangoon, then part of British Burma, she completed her studies at the University of Delhi in 1964 and at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, in 1968. After that, she worked for the United Nations for three years. In 1972, she married Michael Aris, and they had two children. She first gained widespread notice during the 8888 Uprising on 8 August 1988. Along with several former army officers who opposed the military junta, she helped create the NLD and became its general secretary. In the 1990 general election, the NLD won 81% of parliamentary seats, but the military government, the State Peace and Development Council, refused to hand over power, sparking international outrage. She had already been detained before the vote and spent nearly 15 of the 21 years from 1989 to 2010 under house arrest, making her one of the world’s most famous political prisoners. In 1999, *Time* magazine named her one of the “Children of Gandhi” and his spiritual heir to nonviolence. She survived an assassination attempt during the 2003 Depayin massacre, in which at least 70 people linked to the NLD were killed.

Her party boycotted the 2010 general election, leading to a decisive win for the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). In the 2012 by-elections, Aung San Suu Kyi won a seat in the Pyithu Hluttaw (House of Representatives), and the NLD took 43 of the 45 vacant seats. In the 2015 general election, her party won a landslide, securing 86% of seats in the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw—more than the 67% supermajority needed to ensure its preferred candidates became president and vice president through the Presidential Electoral College. Because a clause in the Myanmar Constitution bars anyone with a foreign spouse or foreign children from becoming president, she could not take that office. Instead, she assumed the newly created position of State Counsellor, a role similar to a prime minister or head of government.

Once in power, Aung San Suu Kyi faced criticism from many countries, organizations, and individuals over Myanmar’s failure to act against the Rohingya genocide in Rakhine State and its refusal to acknowledge that the Tatmadaw (armed forces) had carried out massacres. Under her leadership, Myanmar also drew condemnation for prosecuting journalists. In 2019, she appeared before the International Court of Justice to defend the military against allegations of genocide against the Rohingya.

Her party won the November 2020 general election, but on 1 February 2021, the Tatmadaw staged a coup, arresting her and sparking nationwide protests. Multiple charges were filed against her. On 6 December 2021, she received a four-year prison sentence on two counts. On 10 January 2022, she was given an additional four years on other charges. On 12 October 2022, she was convicted on two more corruption charges and sentenced to two concurrent three-year terms. On 30 December 2022, her trials ended with another conviction and a seven-year sentence for corruption. Her total sentence was 33 years, later reduced to 27. In 2026, the government further reduced her sentence and changed it to house arrest. The United Nations, most European countries, and the United States condemned her arrests, trials, and sentences as politically motivated.

**Name** Like other Burmese names, Aung San Suu Kyi has no surname; it is a personal name drawn from three relatives: “Aung San” from her father, “Suu” from her paternal grandmother, and “Kyi” from her mother, Khin Kyi. In Myanmar, she is often called Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. “Daw,” meaning “aunt,” is an honorific for an older, respected woman, similar to “Madam.” Her supporters sometimes refer to her as Daw Suu or Amay Suu (“Mother Suu”).

**Personal life** She was born on 19 June 1945 in Rangoon (Yangon), British Burma. According to writer Peter Popham, her birthplace was Hmway Saung, a small village outside Rangoon. Her father, Aung San, allied with Japan during World War II, founded the modern Burmese army, and negotiated Burma’s independence from Britain in 1947; he was assassinated by rivals that same year. She is a niece of Thakin Than Tun, who was married to Khin Khin Gyi, the elder sister of her mother, Khin Kyi.

She grew up in Rangoon with her mother and two brothers, Aung San Lin and Aung San Oo. Aung San Lin drowned at age eight in an ornamental lake on the family’s property. Aung San Oo later emigrated to San Diego, California, and became a U.S. citizen. After her brother’s death, the family moved to a house by Inya Lake, where she met people of various backgrounds, political views, and religions. She attended Methodist English High School (now Basic Education High School No. 1 Dagon) for much of her childhood in Burma, where she was known for a talent for learning languages.