She was once compared to Nelson Mandela, Gandhi or Martin Luther King.

Fighter for democracy since the uprising, in 1988, of the Burmese population against the military junta, Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1991, imprisoned then under house arrest for fifteen years before leading Burma from 2016: its story was so beautiful that Luc Besson drew a biopic, "The Lady".

It was in 2011, a year after his release, but well before an exercise of power marked by his refusal to act in defense of the Rohingya community.

An attitude which provoked the incomprehension of an international community which had so far adored it.

Having become a persona non grata internationally but still popular in Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi has become a political prisoner again at the age of 75.

>> To read: Military coup in Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi arrested

Sensing for a few days a putsch, she put on her resistance clothes again, leaving a message to the population broadcast on the day of her arrest, Monday February 1, to urge the Burmese to "not accept" the coup.

"The actions of the army (...) put the country under dictatorship," she said in a statement released by her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD).

"I urge the population not to accept this, to react and to protest wholeheartedly against the putsch led by the army."

A fate that changed in 1988

Her sidelining is the last event in a life that begins with a tragedy: the assassination, in 1947, of her father, hero of independence, when she was only two years old.

She then lived for a long time in exile, notably in India and then in Great Britain, a former colonial power.

There, she leads the life of a housewife, married to an Oxford academic specializing in Tibet, Michael Aris, with whom she will have two children.

Her fate changed in 1988 when she returned to Burma to go to her mother's bedside.

She surprises everyone by deciding to get involved in the destiny of her country, in the midst of a revolt against the junta.

"I could not, as the daughter of my father, remain indifferent to everything that happens", she launches during her first speech, remained as the symbol of her entry into politics.

>> To see: Luc Besson pays tribute to the Burmese icon Aung San Suu Kyi

The 1988 repression left some 3,000 dead but marked the birth of the icon.

She becomes the one through whom democracy could one day impose itself again in Burma and in whom a whole Burmese people, crushed by the military dictatorship since 1962, place their hopes.

Authorized to form the NLD, she was quickly placed under house arrest and witnessed, from a distance, her party's victory in the 1990 elections, the results of which the junta refused to recognize.  

In her house on the edge of a lake in Rangoon, where she is consigned, rare emissaries are allowed to visit her, as well as, sometimes, her two boys who remained to live in England with their father.

He died of cancer in 1999 without her being able to say goodbye to him.

Object of international adulation

In 1990, she received the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought from the European Parliament, then, in 1991, the Nobel Peace Prize.

The list of distinctions she received then continued to grow: American presidential medal for Freedom in 2000, honorary citizen of Paris in 2004, Olof Palme prize for human rights in 2005, citizen of Honor of Canada in 2007, International Prize of Catalonia in 2008, French Legion of Honor in 2012, Elie Wiesel Prize of the Holocaust Memorial Museum of the United States in 2012.

"Aung San Suu Kyi was put on a pedestal during her 15 years of house arrest and promoted to the rank of star. She was a woman, she was beautiful, she fought against a military junta: you could not imagine a better one. representative of democracy ", remembers David Camroux, historian specializing in Southeast Asia, lecturer at the Center for International Studies and Research (Ceri) of Sciences Po, contacted by France 24.

To measure the adulation of which she is the object, we must remember November 13, 2010, the day when she found freedom.

The news is instantly celebrated in all Western countries.

In Paris, a rally is hastily organized on the forecourt of the Town Hall by the French support committee for Aung San Suu Kyi.

We find the mayor of the capital, Bertrand Delanoë, surrounded by Jane Birkin, spokesperson for the support committee, and Marion Cotillard.

>> To see: Legislative in Burma: the coronation of the "Lady of Rangoon"?

Aung San Suu Kyi entered parliament in 2012 after the junta's self-dissolution a year earlier.

But the real breakthrough came in 2015, when his party won the legislative elections.

The Constitution prohibiting him from running for president because of his marriage to a foreigner, it is one of his relatives within the party, Htin Kyaw, who was elected in 2016. Aung San Suu Kyi then became minister and special advisor of the 'State.

But it is she who, de facto, rules Burma.

During these years at the head of the country, Aung San Suu Kyi comes up against the test of power, forced to deal with all-powerful soldiers at the head of three key ministries (Interior, Defense and Borders).

Inaction vis-à-vis the Rohingya

The results are positive on the domestic scene with economic growth on the agenda and numerous foreign investments, in particular from China and Japan.

But its image is forever tarnished internationally by the drama of Rohingya Muslims.

In 2017, some 750,000 members of this minority had to flee the abuses of the army and Buddhist militias and took refuge in makeshift camps in Bangladesh, a tragedy which resulted in Burma being accused of "genocide" before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), principal judicial organ of the United Nations.

In December 2019, Aung San Suu Kyi, who denies "any genocidal intention", comes in person to defend his country in court.

Her lack of compassion in this matter draws the wrath of the international community, but "Mother Suu", as the Burmese call her, retains the confidence of her people.

>> To read: Repression of the Rohingya: Aung San Suu Kyi denounces an "incomplete and misleading picture"

"The disappointment was great because the expectations were unrealistic, judge David Camroux. Aung San Suu Kyi considers that the majority ethnic group from which she comes, the Bamar, is superior and that they are the real Burmese, hence her lack of Consideration for the Rohingya. There was also a political calculation on her part because she had to be conciliatory with the military and display her patriotism. "

Beyond the situation of the Rohingya, international observers also criticize him for an autocratic conception of power.

"She is a fairly authoritarian woman who does not know how to delegate, judge David Camroux. It is also a real problem within her party because we do not see the emergence of a new generation. Those who control the party have a lot to do with around 80. It's hard to see who could succeed him. "

Aung San Suu Kyi remains very popular in Burma, however.

Considered a model of modesty and austerity, she embodies for the Burmese what a true Buddhist should be.

The legislative elections of November 2020 also confirmed its popularity, the NLD having obtained an overwhelming victory.

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