Her personal struggle to bring democracy to then military-ruled Myanmar also known as Burma - made her an international symbol of peaceful resistance in the face of oppression. Despite her landslide victory in , the Myanmar constitution forbade her from becoming president because she has children who are foreign nationals.
But Ms Suu Kyi, now 75, was widely seen as de facto leader. Her official title was state counsellor. The President until the coup, Win Myint, was a close aide. In , her NLD once again won a landslide majority, getting even more votes than in the vote. The still powerful military disputed the results, claiming election fraud.
On the day parliament was to a sit for the first time, the military arrested Ms Suu Kyi along with many other political leaders. It then declared a state of emergency, handing power to the military for a full year. Ms Suu Kyi was later charged with illegally importing communications equipment. Police said they found seven walkie-talkie radios in her home which she was not authorised to possess.
He was assassinated when she was only two years old, just before Myanmar gained independence from British colonial rule in Four years later she went to Oxford University in the UK, where she studied philosophy, politics and economics. There she met her future husband, academic Michael Aris. After stints of living and working in Japan and Bhutan, she settled in the UK to raise their two children, Alexander and Kim, but Myanmar was never far from her thoughts.
When she arrived back in Yangon in - to look after her critically ill mother - Myanmar was in the midst of major political upheaval. Thousands of students, office workers and monks took to the streets demanding democratic reform. She went on to lead the revolt against the then-dictator, General Ne Win.
Inspired by the non-violent campaigns of US civil rights leader Martin Luther King and India's Mahatma Gandhi, she organised rallies and travelled around the country, calling for peaceful democratic reform and free elections. But the demonstrations were brutally suppressed by the army, which seized power in a coup on 18 September Ms Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest the following year.
The military government called national elections in May , which Ms Suu Kyi's NLD convincingly won - but the junta refused to hand over control. Ms Suu Kyi remained under house arrest in Yangon for six years, until she was released in July She was again put under house arrest in September , when she tried to travel to the city of Mandalay in defiance of travel restrictions.
She was released unconditionally in May , but just over a year later was imprisoned after a government-backed mob set upon her entourage in the north of the country. She escaped because of the swift action taken by her driver, but many of her supporters were savagely beaten and a number died.
She was later allowed to return home - but again under effective house arrest. At times she was able to meet other NLD officials and selected diplomats, but during the early years she was often in solitary confinement. She was not allowed to see her two sons or her husband, who died of cancer in March Immediately after he was named president, Myint Swe handed power to the country's top military commander, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing. Under Myanmar's constitution, the president can hand power to the military commander in cases of emergency.
That is one of many ways the military is assured of keeping ultimate control of the country. Min Aung Hlaing, 64, has been commander of the armed forces since and is due to retire soon. That would clear the way for him to take a civilian leadership role if the junta holds elections in a year's time as promised. The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party's humiliating loss in last November's elections would likely have precluded that.
The military justified the coup by saying the government failed to address claims of election fraud. International human rights investigators say the military conducted what amounted to ethnic cleansing operations that prompted some 7,00, members of the Rohingya minority to flee, burning people out of their homes and committing other atrocities. In , Myint Swe led an investigation that denied such allegations, saying the military acted "lawfully".
Earlier, it banned him from visiting the United States. Min Aung Hlaing also was among more than a dozen Myanmar officials removed from Facebook in His Twitter account also was closed. Myint Swe, now elevated to president, formerly was among military leaders included in an earlier Treasury Department list of sanctioned Myanmar officials and business figures.
That designation was removed in as the US government sought to support the country's economic development after nearly a half-decade of reforms. Myint Swe, 69, is a close ally of former junta leader Than Shwe, who stepped down to allow the transition to a quasi-civilian government beginning in European Union leaders have issued similar condemnations. China, which has previously opposed international intervention in Myanmar, urged all sides in the country to "resolve differences", while some regional powers, including Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines, said it was an "internal matter".
Aung San Suu Kyi, 75, is the daughter of Myanmar's independence hero, Gen Aung San who was assassinated just before the country gained independence from British colonial rule in She remained popular with the public despite spending years under house arrest. She was released in , and in November she led the NLD to a landslide victory in Myanmar's first openly contested election for 25 years and became de facto leader.
In recent years, her leadership has been defined by the treatment of the country's mostly Muslim Rohingya minority. In hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled to neighbouring Bangladesh due to an army crackdown sparked by deadly attacks on police stations in Rakhine state.
Ms Suu Kyi's defence of the military over the widely condemned crackdown lost her much of her international support. Are you in Myanmar? What have you seen of the coup? Only if it is safe to do so, please share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay bbc.
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:. If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay bbc. Please include your name, age and location with any submission. Aung San Suu Kyi: Democracy icon who fell from grace. How a peace icon ended up at a genocide trial. What you need to know about the Rohingya crisis.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Myanmar's coup: Why now - and what's next? How the military disrupted the internet Who is the general behind the coup? Image source, Reuters. Aung San Suu Kyi, seen here at a coronavirus vaccination clinic in January, is Myanmar's de facto leader. Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. How did the coup unfold?
Image source, EPA. Queues formed at ATMs in Yangon and other cities. So why has the army acted now? What has the reaction been in Myanmar? The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
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