This Monday, the military in Myanmar carried out a coup and arrested President Win Myint, and the Nobel Peace Prize winner and de facto leader of the country, Aung San Suu Kyi.
In this way, life is given another twist to the one who was once considered a beacon in the fight for human rights throughout the world, the activist who chose to lose her freedom to confront the military who ruled with a heavy hand over her country, but in recent years has fallen out of favor before the international community.
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In 1991, “The lady”, as she was nicknamed, received the Nobel Peace Prize and the committee that gave her the award pointed out that she was “ an extraordinary example of the power of those who have no power “.
But since it became the l de facto leader of your country, at 2016 and after the democratic opening of it, Suu Kyi has been condemned by the same international leaders and activists who once supported her, outraged by her silence in the face of the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Muslims r ohingya from Myanmar to the neighboring country, Bangladesh, due to military persecution,
The same activists who once praised her now accuse her of doing nothing to stop the rapes, murders and possible genocide against that minority.
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The international community points out her for not condemning the military who perpetrate these actions and says that she is aware of the atrocities that are being committed but refuses to denounce them s in loud .
The few people who support her in the international arena point out that she is a politician pragmatic who is trying to rule a multi-ethnic country with a complex history and a Buddhist majority that has little sympathy for the Rohingya.
And they add that the military still have a large part of the political power and have not let go of control of the security forces, which was confirmed with the coup on Monday.
Critics of Aung San Suu Kyi point out that the former human rights leader has lost her moral prestige, as well as her reputation for being someone willing to fight for these causes despite the personal cost I had to pay.
The path of power
Suu Kyi, from 63 years, she spent most of the two decades between 1989 Y 2010, due to your efforts po r bring democracy to a country ruled by the military, making it an international symbol of peaceful resistance to oppression.
In November 2015, led the National League of Democracy (NLD), who won the first free elections in Myanmar in 25 years.
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That victory came five years after she was liberated.
Although Myanmar’s constitution prohibits her from becoming president because she has children who were born abroad, Suu Kyi is seen as the de facto leader of the country.
Her official title is State Councilor. The president, Win Myint, is a close aide.
Political lineage
Suu Kyi is the daughter of the hero of the country’s independence, General Aung San.
He was assassinated in July 1947, during the transition period and just six months before independence was achieved, when Suu Kyi was only 2 years old.
In 1960, I travel to India with her mother, Daw Khin Kyi , who had been appointed her country’s ambassador in Delhi.
Four years later she traveled to the Kingdom Joined to begin his studies at Oxford University: Philosophy, Politics and Economics. There she met her husband, the academic Michael Aris.
She settled in the United Kingdom where she had two children, Alexander and Kim.
When he finally returned to Rangoon (the largest city in your country, now called Yangon) in 1988 -to take care of her mother who was ill-, Myanmar was in the middle of a political uprising.
Thousands of students, workers and monks had taken to the streets to demand a democratic reform.
“I cannot, as the daughter of my father that I am, remain indifferent to what what’s going on, ”he said during a speech at Rangoon , the 26 August 1989.
Her statements prompted her to convert become the leader of the revolt against the then dictator, General Ne Win.
Inspired by the campaign for civil rights in the United States of Martin Luther Kin g and the drive for India’s independence from Mahatma Gandhi, Suu Kyi organized mobilizations around the country calling for democratic reform and free elections.
But the marches were brutally repressed by the army, which came to power through a coup on 18 September 1988. Suu Kyi was sent to serve house arrest the following year.
The military government called elections in 1989, but – despite the fact that the party founded by Suu Kyi, the NLD , won convincingly the military refused to hand over power.
House arrest
Suu Kyi remained under house arrest in Rangoon for six years, until she was released in 1995.
But she was again arrested and placed under house arrest in September 2000, when she tried to travel to the city of Mandalay, defying the movement restrictions that had been imposed on her.
She was unconditionally released in May 2002, But again she was sent to jail after a confrontation between her followers and government militants.
Later allowed to return home, but again under arrest domiciliary and with solitary confinement. In fact, she was forbidden to see her two children and her husband, who died of cancer in March of 1999.
The military authorities offered him to travel to the United Kingdom when he was seriously ill, but he was forced to reject the offer for fear that he would be denied re-entry into the country .
Return to policy
Suu Kyi was sidelined from the first elections in 20 years, which were celebrated November 7, 2010, but she was released from her house arrest six days later.
It was the first time she had seen her son Kim Aris in more than a decade.
As the new government embarked on a reform process, Suu Kyi and her party joined the political process.
In the by-elections held in April 2012, his party achieved 43 of the 45 seats that were in dispute in Parliament.
In this way he became a congressman and leader of the opposition.
That same year he was able to leave Myanmar for the first time in 24 years, as a sign of confidence that the new leaders would let her return to the country.
“Very optimistic”
However, he soon became frustrated with the scant progress shown in democratic development in his country.
In November 2014, denounced that Myanmar had not made any real reform and that the US -which had lifted most of the economic sanctions against the country in 2012 – had been “excessive nte optimistic ”in the past.
Also, in June of 2015, was unable to achieve a majority vote to remove the army’s veto on a constitutional change.
But four months later, on November 8, 2015, the first open and free elections were held in Myanmar in 25 years. The NLD obtained an overwhelming victory.
Although she could not be president due to a constitutional restriction (written especially with her in mind) that prevents Candidates with foreign-born spouses or children present themselves, Suu Kyi became de facto leader in 2016, in a role of “state councilor.”
Since then, her leadership was defined by the crisis r ohingya.
After the fatal attacks on police stations in Rakhine State in August 2017, the Myanmar army began a brutal repression against that ethnic minority, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee across the border into Bangladesh.
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Critics They say Suu Kyi did not and has not done enough to convict the military.
Therefore, she and Myanmar face a genocide trial at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), based in The Hague.
Since he assumed power, in addition to the Rohingya crisis, Suu K yi and his government have also faced criticism for prosecuting journalists and activists based on colonial-era laws.
The most important case Noted is that of Reuters journalists who were convicted – although later released – for covering attacks against the Rohingya.
The journalists were accused of violating an Official Secrets law. Activists have declared that this type of law restricts journalism.
However, progress has also been made in some areas, although the army still maintains control of a quarter of parliamentary seats and some key ministries, including defense, home affairs and border affairs.
In August of 2018, Suu Kyi described the generals in her cabinet as “very sweet people.”
Now, those same soldiers – alleging fraud in the last elections, in which Suu Kyi’s party won by avalanche – decided to remove her from power, showing that the last chapter in the life of this complex woman – considered a heroine and traitor at the same time- not yet written.
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