Honoring a Shining Light : Nobel Peace Prize sends blunt message to Myanmar’s junta

The Nobel Peace Prize has justifiably been awarded to Aung San Suu Kyi, a living symbol of the Burmese struggle for human rights and democracy against one of the most repressive governments in the world.

As the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Olso so aptly put it, she represents “one of the most extraordinary examples of civil courage in Asia in recent decades.”

The military junta ruling Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has tried to isolate Suu Kyi, 46, leader of the main opposition party and daughter of Aung San, who led the country to its independence from the British. For two years she has been under house arrest, cut off from the world--even from her husband, Michael Aris of Harvard University, and their two teen-aged sons.

But she is an inspiration to her people. A year after her arrest, her National League for Democracy party scored a landslide victory at the polls. But the military has refused to honor the election results, and leaders of the opposition party have fled the capital.

The ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council has offered in the past to allow Suu Kyi to leave the country. She has not accepted because the government refuses her demands, which include freeing all political prisoners and transferring power to elected civilian officials.

Unless these conditions are met, Suu Kyi is not likely to be able to accept the Peace Prize in Oslo. Her youngest son, who is 14 years old, accepted the European Parliament’s Sakharov Peace Prize on her behalf in Europe last July.

The Nobel award puts the spotlight on Myanmar, whose democratic movement was obscured by the dramatic unraveling of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Suu Kyi’s incarceration is the immoral imprisonment of the will of the Burmese people seeking freedom.