[[File:Suu Kyi Outcry.jpg|thumb|240px|Outcry grows over Suu Kyi charges (May, 2009).]]
'''Aung San Suu Kyi''' (June 19, 1945, [[Rangoon]] - ) is the leader of the National League for Democracy in [[Burma ]] and a famous former [[prisoner of conscience]]. The daughter of [[Burma|Burmese]] national hero Aung San, Suu Kyi is a pro-[[democracy]] activist committed to non-violence and ; she has been called the "[[Nelson Mandela]] of [[Asia]]". A [[Buddhism|Buddhist]], Suu Kyi won the Sakharov and Rafto Prizes for Freedom of Thought in 1990. In 1991, she also became a [[Nobel Peace Prize|Nobelist]] for her peaceful fight against a [[dictatorship]].
Largely influenced by the example of [[Mahatma Gandhi]], Suu Kyi entered politics to work on behalf of increased Burmese democracy, helping to set up the National League for Democracy on 27 September 1988. For this, she was placed under [[house arrest]] on 20 July 1989. The Burmese military junta offered to let her go into [[exile]], but she refused. Various international figures, from [[George W. Bush]] to [[Ban Ki-moon]], have called upon the junta leader General [[Than Shwe]] to release her, these requests have been ignored by the despotic regime for a long time. But on November 13, 2010 she was released from house arrest by the military junta. <ref>http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/11/13/release-order-read-burma-democracy-leader/ Burma Junta Releases Democracy Leader Suu Kyi </ref> Today she is the leader of her party ''National League for Democracy''.