WASHINGTON - President Bush held a signing ceremony to make law legislation to award Aung San Suu Kyi the Congressional Gold Medal.

The legislation awarding Suu Kyi the Congressional Gold Medal was spearheaded by U.S. Representative Joseph Crowley (D-NY), U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and U.S. Representative Donald Manzullo (R-IL).  It passed the House of Representatives on December 17, 2007 by a vote of 400-0 and passed the Senate unanimously on April 24, 2008.  The medal is being presented to Suu Kyi in recognition of her efforts to end military rule and establish peace and democracy in Burma. 

 “For three decades, Aung San Suu Kyi has valiantly led the nonviolent movement in Burma for democracy and human rights.  Her work and dedication to the cause of freedom and individual liberty has earned her recognition throughout the world, including the Nobel Peace Prize,” said Crowley. “We will show the world that Aung San Suu Kyi’s commitment to a free democratic Burma has also won the hearts and minds of the American public.  By signing into law legislation to award her the Congressional Gold Medal, the President is joining Congress in drawing attention to the plight of the Burmese people who continue to struggle for permanent democratic reform and who are suffering right now in the devastating aftermath of this weekend’s cyclone.”

Suu Kyi’s long crusade to end the human rights-abusing military dictatorship in Burma began in the 1980s.  In 1988, she helped form the National League for Democracy, which advocates non-violence.  She is currently the NLD’s General Secretary.  However, since the time she began campaigning for the NLD, the junta has kept Suu Kyi under house arrest for 12 of 18 years.  In 1990, despite being under house arrest, she led her political party to a landslide victory in parliamentary elections, gaining 82 percent of the seats in parliament.  The military junta snubbed the will of the Burmese people by nullifying the results and, subsequently, cracking down on all political expression.

Despite being offered her freedom if in return she would leave the country and give up politics, Suu Kyi chose instead to remain in Burma.  She has consistently maintained that the way forward for the people of Burma is through peaceful negotiations between the military regime, the NLD, and the country’s ethnic minorities.  For her efforts on behalf of the Burmese people, she has won over 60 international awards, including the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought from the European Union, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in the United States, and the Nobel Peace Prize. 

She is the world’s only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize Recipient.  Even while under house arrest, she continues to fight on behalf of all the people of Burma – recently meeting with junta officials to work for a peaceful way forward after the bloody nationwide crackdown.