Suu Kyi shaped by family events

As the daughter of a Burmese independence hero, it was perhaps inevitable that Aung San Suu Kyi would be thrust under the political spotlight.

She was born on June 19, 1945 and was just two years old when her father, General Aung San, was assassinated.

After growing up in India and Burma, she went to Oxford University where she met Michael Aris, a Tibet scholar.

The pair married in 1972, going on to have two sons, Alexander and Kim. The boys were raised in England, but Ms Suu Kyi returned to Burma in 1988 to care for her dying mother, despite the fact mass demonstrations were breaking out against the 25 years of military rule.

She became involved in the uprising and was appointed general secretary of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in September 1988, the month after up to 5,000 demonstrators were killed by the military.

Ms Suu Kyi became a prominent figure and was placed under detention by the military in 1989 and banned from standing in the general election the following year, called by the dictatorship following national and international pressure.

The NLD went on to win 82% of the seats in parliament but the military refused to hand over power to them. Ms Suu Kyi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, remained under house arrest until July 1995, facing restrictions on her movements when finally released.

Her husband died of prostate cancer in 1999 at the age of 53. He had asked Burmese authorities to grant him a visa to visit her one last time, but was refused.

Ms Suu Kyi had chosen not to join her family abroad, fearing she would never be allowed back into Burma if she did so. The last time the couple saw each other was at Christmas in 1995.

In 2000, she was placed under house arrest again after trying to leave the capital Rangoon in order to hold political meetings in other parts of Burma. Two years later, she was released and given the freedom to travel around the country in a deal negotiated by United Nations envoy on Burma, Razali Ismail.

Meetings were held at which tens of thousands of people turned out to see Ms Suu Kyi. In 2003 an attempt was made on her life and 70 of her supporters were beaten to death. She was held in detention following the attacks.

She was due to be released in 2009, but was charged with breaking the rules of her house arrest when an American man swam across a lake to enter her home.

The terms of her sentence for the later conviction meant she was still in detention when elections were held in Burma in November 2010, the first since 1990.

Later that month her 15 years of detention finally came to an end amid wild celebrations by supporters outside her home.

Ms Suu Kyi has met with several significant international politicians since being freed.

She held talks with US secretary of state Hillary Clinton in December, while Foreign Secretary William Hague visited in January.

By-elections held on April 1 - in which the NLD won 43 out of the 44 seats it contested - saw her elected to parliament to represent the constituency of Kawhmu following a landslide victory.

But she cautioned her party's supporters to remain dignified.

She said in a statement: "It is natural that the NLD members and their supporters are joyous at this point.

"However, it is necessary to avoid manners and actions that will make the other parties and members upset. It is very important that NLD members take special care that the success of the people is a dignified one."

The parliamentary session begins on April 23.