Chapman University 1997 Honorary De

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Subject: Chapman University 1997 Honorary Degree Recipient Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

Chapman University 1997 Honorary Degree Recipient
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

	Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has gained international recognition for her courage
in the struggle against oppression and her efforts to restore democracy to
Burma, which has been under military rule since 1962.
	Born in 1945 in Rangoon, Aung San Suu Kyi is the daughter of General Aung
San, Burma?s national hero who fought for independence from Great Britain
and who was assassinated in 1947, six months before Burma won independence.
	Educated at the Methodist English High School in Rangoon, Aung San Suu Kyi
accompanied her mother, Daw Khin Kyi, as Burma?s ambassador to India.  There
she studied political science at Delhi University.  In 1967 she earned a
degree in politics, philosophy and economics from Oxford University.  After
college she worked on the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary
Questions at the United Nations, and later married Dr. Michael Aris, a
British Tibetologist now at Oxford University.  They have two sons.
	In 1988 Aung San Suu Kyi returned to Burma to care for her mother.  When
protests against the military government that year prompted a popular
uprising for democracy in Burma, she joined the movement and became an
effective public speaker and advocate. She was instrumental in establishing
the national League for Democracxy (NLD) and became the party?s general
secretary.  The military government, renamed the State Law and Order
Restoration Council (SLORC), placed Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest in
1989, claiming she was "endangering the state."  She remained in solitary
confinement under house arrest for six years, until July 1995.
	In 1990 the NLD won 82 percent of the seats contested in the first
multi-party general elections held in Burma since 1960.  SLORC nullified the
elections, stating that a new constitution was needed before power could be
transferred. Since then Aung San Suu Kyi and other pro-democracy activists
have continued the struggle for freedom in the face of government persecution.
	A Buddhist, Aung San Suu Kyi practices non-violent civil disobedience.
Many of her efforts focus on uniting the divided regions and ethnic groups
in Burma.  She and her party favor a federal state in multi-ethnic Burma,
with protections for minority cultures, languages and traditions.  Recently
she has called upon foreign governments and corporations to impose economic
sanctions against Burma to effect democratic change.
	Aung San Suu Kyi has been recognized by the international community for her
personal courage and dedication to the principles of non-violence,
democracy, and human rights.  In 1991 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Among numerous other awards, she has also received Norway?s Thorolf Rafto
Prize for Human Rights, the European Parliament?s Sakharov Prize for Freedom
of Thought, India?s Jawarhalal Nehru Award; the 1995 Freedom Award from the
International Rescue Committee, and the W. Averill Harriman Democracy Award
form the National Democratic Institute.

Excerpted from: American University 1996 commencement program.











FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE			Contact:  Ruth Wardwell (714) 532-6075
							    Dr. Win (714) 432-5860


Chapman Awards Honorary Doctorate Degree
to International Peace Activist 

· Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who is a virtual political prisoner in Burma, has
been selected to receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from
Orange County?s largest independent university.

· She was nominated for the degree, which will be presented in absentia, by
Chapman alumna BettyJane Champlin, a Dana Point lawyer and photojournalist
who is active in the Free Burma movement.


	ORANGE, Calif., May 15, 1997 ? The recipient of Chapman University?s 1997
Doctor of Humane Letters honorary degree won?t be able to make it to the
ceremony.  That?s because she is a virtual prisoner in her own home, halfway
around the world.
	The recipient is Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and pro-democracy activist Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi, of Burma, who, although freed from house arrest in 1995,
remains under close scrutiny by Burmese officials for her activism for
freedom.  
	The honorary degree will be awarded in absentia at Chapman?s undergraduate
commencement ceremony, Sunday, May 25, 1997 at 4 p.m. on the campus
athletics field.
-more-
-2-  Chapman Awards Honorary Doctorate
	Chapman alumna and Dana Point attorney and photojournalist BettyJane
Champlin nominated Sun Kyi for the honor.  Champlin has met Sun Kyi in Burma
while on a photo expedition and is active in the Free Burma Coalition.  This
movement has made news recently, when President Clinton signed the bill that
would keep the U.S. from contributing to a positive economic base in Burma
until democracy prevails in that country.
	The nomination has drawn significant support from Orange Coast College
Professor       U Kyaw Win, a Burmese exile living in Laguna Hills.  He
says: "In honoring Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Chapman University is paying
tribute to the heroic people of Burma in their peaceful struggle for human
dignity and freedom, under the leadership of this courageous lady."
	Chapman?s board of trustees voted unanimously to award the honorary degree
to Sun Kyi for her non-violent commitment to democracy, peace and human
rights.  It is the second such honor she has received in absentia from a
university in the U.S.; last year American University in Washington, D.C.
distinguished her with an honorary doctorate.
	If Sun Kyi leaves her homeland she probably would not be allowed to return.
Therefore, a friend or family member will accept on her behalf; this
announcement will be made at the commencement ceremony.
	Chapman University, based in Orange, Calif., is comprised of six schools
and two colleges.  It was founded in 1861 as Hesperian College and maintains
a relationship with its founding denomination, the Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ).  The principles of basic human rights, for which Kyi
stands, parallel the Disciples? vision for peace and creating environments
open to all, which were among the founding tenets of the institution.
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Ruth S. Wardwell
Director of News Services
Chapman University
333 N. Glassell
Orange, CA

Phone: (714) 532-6075
Fax:  (714) 997-6685
e-mail:  wardwell@xxxxxxxxxxx