Suu Kyi: revered democracy leader

NOBEL Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is revered in Burma and by campaigners around the world as the embodiment of the country’s fight for democracy.

The daughter of an assassinated independence hero, she returned to Burma in 1988 from Britain and quickly became the figurehead of the growing resistance to the ruling junta.

But since leading the opposition to victory in a 1990 election, she has spent 11 years confined to house arrests, with only brief spells in which she was given restricted freedom.