Aung San Suu Kyi, a Burmese human rights activist and Nobel Peace laureate, is the recipient of the 21st University of Michigan Wallenberg Medal.

 In a rare public address overseas, Suu Kyi will give her videotaped Wallenberg Lecture at 7:30 p.m. ET Oct. 25 before an audience in Rackham Auditorium.

The lecture will be followed immediately by a live Q&A session with Suu Kyi in Burma.

Suu Kyi, freed from house arrest nearly a year ago, has not been expressly banned from leaving her country. However, she fears she may not be allowed to return if she goes abroad, so she continues to stay in Burma, devoting her life to the peaceful struggle for democracy and human rights. She led her party to victory in 1990 elections, but military leaders refused to recognize the results. She has spent most of the past two decades in jail or house arrest.

Undaunted and fearless through many years of detention and efforts to intimidate her, in speaking out for democracy and human rights in Burma, Suu Kyi exemplifies the courage and commitment to the humanitarian values of Raoul Wallenberg. A 1935 graduate of the College of Architecture, Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg saved the lives of tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews near the end of World War II. In 1944, at the request of Jewish organizations and the American War Refugee Board, the Swedish Foreign Ministry sent Wallenberg on a rescue mission to Budapest. Over the course of six months, Wallenberg issued thousands of protective passports and placed many thousands of Jews in safe houses throughout the besieged city. He confronted Hungarian and German forces to secure the release of Jews whom he claimed were under Swedish protection, and saved over 80,000 lives.

After reporting to Soviet headquarters in Budapest on Jan.17, 1945, Wallenberg vanished into the Soviet Gulag. Although the Russians claim that Wallenberg died in 1947, the results of numerous investigations into his whereabouts remain inconclusive.                     

Please forward this message to students and faculty in your graduate program, and do not hesitate to contact me if you have questions. 

John Godfrey

Assistant Dean

Rackham Graduate School

University of Michigan

915 E. Washington St.

Ann Arbor, MI  48109

tel 734-764-8221

fax 734-763-2447