Aung San Suu Kyi is the leading face of the pro-democracy movement and a leader of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar. Suu Kyi is one of the world's most famous and most respected freedom fighters and advocates of nonviolence. She has spent more than 15 years in prison, most of it under house arrest. She was released from her current third period of detention on Saturday 13th November 2010.
In 1988, Aung San Suu Kyi returned to Burma mother. By coincidence, That same year, the long-time military leader of Burma and head of the ruling party, General Ne Win, stepped down. Mass demonstrations for democracy rose on 8 August 1988 which were violently suppressed in what came to be known as the 8888 Uprising. On 26 August 1988, Aung San Suu Kyi addressed half a million people at a mass rally in front of the Shwedagon Pagoda in the capital, calling for a democratic government. However in September, a new military junta took power. Later the same month, 24 September 1988, the National League for Democracy (NLD) was formed, with Suu Kyi as general secretary.
Influenced by both Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence] and by more specifically Buddhist concepts, Aung San Suu Kyi entered politics to work for democratization, helped found the National League for Democracy on 24 September 1988, and was put under house arrest on 20 July 1989. She was offered freedom if she left the country, but she refused. In 1990, the military junta called a general election, in which the National League for Democracy (NLD) received 59% of the votes, guaranteeing NLD 80% of the parliament seats. Being the NLD's candidate, Aung San Suu Kyi under normal circumstances 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. Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest.
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