Aung San Suu Kyi

Earned the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her efforts as a Burmese human rights activist, writer, and cofounder of the National League for Democracy, the country's most powerful opposition party. For her "treasonous" political activities, which consisted of journeying (sometimes by bullock cart or boat) the length and breadth of Burma to speak out against the dictatorship, she was placed under house arrest in July, 1989. When the Nobels of 1991 were announced, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said: "She became the leader of a democratic opposition which employs nonviolent means to resist a regime characterized by brutality. Suu Kyi's struggle is one of the most extraordinary examples of civil courage in Asia in recent decades."

[on her father, Aung San, former Burmese nationalist leader who is known as the father of modern Burma:] "It was only when I grew older and started collecting material on his life and achievements that I began to learn what he had really been like and how much he had managed to achieve in his thirty-two years. Not only did I then conceive an admiration for him as a patriot and statesman but I developed a strong sense of empathy as I discovered many similarities in our attitudes. It is perhaps because of this strong bond that I came to feel such a deep sense of responsibility for the welfare of my country."