In August 1988, the people of Burma defied decades of military oppression with one of the most remarkable popular uprisings of recent times.

The demonstrators carried pictures of…General Aung San, the country’s greatest hero, led Burma to independence from Britain and founded the army that rules today.

The demonstrators believed that if they carried pictures of Aung San that no soldier would harm them, but they were wrong.

It’s estimated that as many as 10,000 people were killed and the bloody slaughter that followed, but from the ashes of repression, emerged a leader whose popularity was to gravely threaten the general in Rangoon. Her name was Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of the hero Aung San.