Who is Aung San Suu Kyi?

Myanmar’s pro-democracy figurehead has been detained, as military seize power

Aung San Suu Kyi – the pro-democracy leader who helped establish Myanmar’s first civilian government in half a century – is once again in detention after a military coup in the southeast Asian country.

World leaders have been calling for the release of the 75-year-old, who was taken away along with colleagues from the National League for Democracy (NLD) in a series of overnight raids.

Detention is nothing new for the Nobel Peace Prize winner. Having spent her early life in exile, she spent 15 years under house arrest in the struggle to bring democracy to Myanmar.

Known and beloved in much of Myanmar as “the Lady”, Ms Aung fulfilled the dreams of millions when her party won a landslide election in 2015 that gave elected politicians power for the first time in 50 years.

But she appalled global leaders only two years later by denying the extent of a sweeping military-led crackdown against the Rohingya minority which forced hundreds of thousands to flee the country.

She remains widely admired in Myanmar, but has struggled to unite various ethnic groups or end its decade-long civil wars. Her uneasy alliance with the military – which has been able to maintain a key role in the political system – also saw tightened restrictions on the press.

The daughter of independence hero Aung San, who was assassinated in 1947 when she was only two-years-old, Ms Aung spent much of her young life overseas. She attended Oxford University, where she met her husband Michael Aris. She asked him to promise he would not stop her if she needed to return home.

In 1988, she returned to Myanmar, then known as Burma, and was swept up in a student-led revolution against the military junta that had seized power after her father’s death. Ms Aung quickly became the figurehead of the new movement, quoting her father’s dream to “build up a free Burma”.

The revolution was crushed by the military, with most its leaders killed and jailed, and Ms Aung was imprisoned in her lakeside family home. She spent 15 years over a 21-year period under house arrest. Speaking her name in public could earn her supporters a prison sentence, so they called her “the Lady”.

The army led a relentless smear campaign against Ms Aung, whom they dubbed an “axe-handle of the West”. Yet she played a crucial role in keeping world attention on Myanmar’s military junta and its human rights record, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

In 2010, the military began a series of democratic reforms and Ms Aung was finally released from house arrest before thousands of weeping, cheering supporters.

Barack Obama became the first US president to visit Myanmar in 2012, calling her an “inspiration to people all around the world”. Many nations began to ease economic sanctions on Myanmar.

With her NDA party’s 2015 election win, Ms Aung was given the role of “State Counsellor”, pledging to help reduce the army’s role in politics. But the military retained an unelected quota of 25 per cent of parliamentary seats, ensuring an important stake in politics.

The democratic leader also promised Western allies she would address the plight of the Rohingya who had borne the brunt of violent clashes with Buddhists, with hundreds of thousands detained in internment camps.

But in August 2017, when Rohingya militants attacked security forces, the military responded by burning hundreds of villages to the ground and carrying out mass killings and gang rapes. The UN said it was conducted with “genocidal intent”.

Ms Aung said the military was exercising “rule of law” and appeared baffled about the exodus of refugees. Global institutions and former advocates – including the Dalai Lama – publicly denounced her, and many of the accolades awarded to her were rescinded.

In 2019, she flew to the Hague to face charges of genocide at the International Court of Justice. She acknowledged the possibility war crimes had been committed, but framed the crackdown as a legitimate military operation against terrorists.

Last November, the NLD won 83 per cent of available seats in parliamentary election. Last week, the military triggered worries about a potential coup after threatening to “take action" over alleged fraud. A military-run TV channel was the first to announce the coup, saying the military would take charge for an emergency period of one year and that new elections would be held.

It plunges Ms Aung back into a state of powerless opposition, once again detained; once again railing against military rule. A statement uploaded on an NLD Facebook page quoted her urging supporters to “wholeheartedly protest against the coup by the military”.

Former US diplomat Bill Richardson said Joe Biden’s administration and other governments should act swiftly to impose sanctions. However, he questioned Ms Aung’s ability to lead the country again in future, given her defence of the military’s actions against ethnic Rohingya Muslims.

“She should step aside and let other Myanmar democratic leaders take the reins with international backing and support,” Mr Richardson said.