The Rise and Fall of Aung San Suu Kyi

A military court has sentenced Aung San Suu Kyi to an additional five years in prison on corruption charges, in addition to six years in prison on separate charges.

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The deposed civilian leader of Myanmar faces ten more corruption charges – and a possible maximum sentence of more than 150 years. All the charges against them were brought by the military junta that seized power in February last year.

The allegations range from violating Covid restrictions to illegally importing walkie-talkies. But they are “widely viewed as a ploy by the junta to put an end to their political careers and remove the main obstacle to their exercise of total power,” she said The times.

way to victory

The now-controversial figure was once praised for her fight to bring democracy to military-ruled Myanmar and was awarded the prize for her “non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights.” Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. But she has been criticized in recent years for their refusal to condemn the genocide of Rohingya Muslimsa minority in the country.

Suu Kyi is the daughter of General Aung San, Myanmar’s independence hero, who was assassinated at just two years old just before the country gained independence from Britain in 1948.

“Inspired by the nonviolent campaigns of US civil rights leader Martin Luther King and India’s Mahatma Gandhi,” Suu Kyi led a revolt against dictator General Ne Win in 1988, calling for “peaceful democratic reforms and free elections,” he said BBC.

The demonstrations were “brutally crushed” by the army, which seized power in a coup on September 18, 1988. Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest a year later.

In 2015 her National League for Democracy (NLD) party was democratically elected with a “landslide victory”. The country’s electoral rules, which bar those with foreign children, meant Suu Kyi could not become president.

Instead, the title was bestowed on her close associate, Win Myint, but Suu Kyi was widely regarded as the de facto ruler of Myanmar.

A powerful force

Supporters of Suu Kyi have claimed that the “baseless” charges against her “are aimed at ending her political career” and “engaging her in court cases while the military consolidates power”. Reuters reported.

Historian and author Thant Myint U told the news outlet that military leaders believe the political reforms introduced by their predecessors “went too far” in allowing Suu Kyi to return to the political arena.

Last years Coup should ‘exclude’ themhe said, adding: “She remains by far the most popular (character) in Myanmar politics and could still be a powerful force for what is to come.”

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said the more serious charges against Suu Kyi were intended to ensure that she “can never be a free woman again.”

But her detention is likely to “bolster the pro-democracy campaign in the country,” according to Aye Min Thant, a Burmese-American writer based in Bangkok.

“Now we’ve seen parallel government emerge, we’ve seen a huge movement of civil disobedience,” said the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist German wave. “I don’t think this verdict surprised most people. I think people had planned to continue the resistance without having Aung San Suu Kyi as the leader.”

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has described Suu Kyi’s legal dispute with the junta as “an appalling attempt by Myanmar’s military regime to stifle the opposition and suppress freedom and democracy”.

However, Suu Kyi has also been criticized in the West for her handling of the Rohingya crisis. Myanmar is facing a lawsuit before the International Court of Justice allegations of genocideand the International Criminal Court investigates possible crimes against humanity.

But at home, she remains “very popular” with Myanmar’s Bamar ethnic majority, according to the BBC.

https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/world-news/955061/aung-san-suu-kyi-victim-or-hero The Rise and Fall of Aung San Suu Kyi