contributors' biographies

Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San led Burma's fight for freedom from the British. He was assassinated in 1947, on the eve of independence.

After many years studying and working in the West, his daughter, Aung San Suu Kyi, returned to Burma in 1988 to care for her ailing mother. Following pro-democracy demonstrations that summer, she was elected Secretary General of the National League of Democracy.

She soon was arrested by Burma's military regime, charged with "endangering the state", and confined to her home in Rangoon. This meant being separated from her husband and two sons in England.

In 1991 she became the eighth woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Today, Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest in Rangoon.