Leaders

Aung San - instrumental in securing Burma's independence from Great Britain - is the most celebrated nationalist leader.

Head of state: Than Shwe, chairman of the State Peace and Development Council

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Born in 1933 near the town of Mandalay, Senior General Than Shwe, introverted and superstitious who frequently seeks the advice of astrologers, after working in the Burmese postal service, joined the Army at the age of 20. His career included a stint in the department of psychological warfare. He was decorated more than 16 times during his career as a soldier.

Than Shwe, 71, is the head of the ruling junta and controls the Army. He is the most hard-line leader, strongly opposed to allowing any political role for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy. The NLD won a landslide election victory in 1990 - Burma's first multi-party elections for 30 years.

Senior General Than Shwe, the country's top military leader, became head of the State Law and Order Restoration Council (Slorc) in 1992. The Slorc reconstituted itself as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) in 1997.

In 1993 Mr Than established the National Convention, a reconciliation process aimed at drawing up a new constitution. However, he is unlikely to allow any political change.

Maung Aye, a ruthless career soldier and the second most powerful man in the country, had allegedly established strong ties with Burma's many drug lords before joining the military leadership in 1993.

Prime minister: Soe Win

Lieutenant General Soe Win, 56, who joined the Defence Service Academy in 1965, is closely associated with Than Shwe. He succeeded Khin Nyunt as prime minister in October, 2003.

Soe Win is reported to be behind a bloody attack on Aung San Suu Kyi's convoy in the north of the country last year.

Eminent leaders

Aung San Suu Kyi

When Aung San Suu Kyi - inspired by the non-violent campaigns of US civil rights leader Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi - was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to bring democracy to Burma in 1991, it came as a shot in the arm for her party, NLD, and millions of her followers in and outside Burma.

Like the South African leader Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi - her supporters call her simply 'The Lady' - has become an international symbol of heroic and peaceful resistance, rising up to the stern challenges posed by Burma's military rulers. Burmese people's hope that one day there will be an end to the country's military repression rests solely on her shoulders.

The pro-democracy campaigner and leader of the opposition National League for Democracy party (NLD), she has spent nine of the past 15 years in some form of detention.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was born on June 19, 1948 in the Burmese capital of Rangoon. Today she is under house arrest in her native Burma for attempting to bring democracy to the country, currently governed under martial law.

Her father was a prominent military official, General Aung San. When she was 15, the family moved to India after her mother, Daw Khin Kyi, was appointed Ambassador.

She was educated at St. Hugh's College of Oxford University and graduated in 1967 with a BA of politics, philosophy and economics. She then began working for the UN as Assistant Secretary for the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions.

In 1972 she moved to Bhutan where she served as a Research Officer for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. That same year, she married British scholar Dr. Michael Aris.

After a brief return to England for the birth of her sons, Kim and Alexander, the family moved to Simla, where she was named Research fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies. However, Daw Khin Kyi's failing health led the family to return to Burma.

When she arrived back in Rangoon in 1988, Burma was in the midst of major political upheaval.

Thousands of students, office workers and monks took to the streets demanding democratic reform.

"I could not, as my father's daughter, remain indifferent to all that was going on," she said in a speech in Rangoon on August 26, 1988.

Aung San Suu Kyi soon found herself leading the revolt against then-dictator General Ne Win.

She staged demonstrations and travelled around the country, calling for peaceful democratic reform and free elections (that, finally, led to her house arrest.) The protests were brutally suppressed by the Army, who seized power in a coup on September 18, 1988.

When the military government called national elections in May 1990, Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD convincingly won the polls, even as she was under house arrest and disqualified from standing.

But the junta refused to hand over power, and has remained in power ever since. After six years of house arrest in Rangoon, she was released in July 1995.

During detention, she was not even allowed to see her two sons or her husband, the British academic Michael Aris. In March 1999, her husband died of cancer.

When she tried to travel to the city of Mandalay flouting travel restrictions in September 2000, she was again put under house arrest.

She was released unconditionally in May 2002, but just over a year later she was put in prison following a clash between her supporters and a government-backed mob.

Following a gynaecological operation in September 2003, she was allowed to return home - but again under effective house arrest.

During detentions, Aung San Suu Kyi has busied herself studying diffrent subjects. Those who have met her have this to say, "Most impressive."

General Aung San

Aung San was born on February 13, 1915 in Natmauk. Instrumental in securing Burma's independence from Great Britain, he is the most celebrated nationalist leader Burma has ever known.

Before World War II Aung San was actively anti-British; he then allied with the Japanese during World War II, but switched to the Allies before leading the Burmese drive for autonomy.

Serving as minister of defence in Ba Maw's puppet government (1943-45), Aung San became sceptical of Japanese promises of Burma freedom and was displeased with their treatment of Burma forces.

Thus, in March 1945, Major General Aung San switched his Burma National Army to the Allied cause.

In 1944, Aung San became deputy chairman of Burma's Executive Council in late 1946.

In effect he was prime minister but remained subject to the British governor's veto. After conferring with the British prime minister Clement Attlee in London, he announced an agreement on January 27, 1947 that provided for Burma's independence within one year.

In the election for a constitutional assembly in April 1947, his AFPFL (Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League) won 196 of 202 seats. On July 19, 1947 the prime minister and six colleagues, including his brother, were assassinated in the council chamber in Rangoon while the executive council was in session. His political rival, U Saw, an intern in Uganda during the war, was later executed for his part in the killings.