biography
| name: |
Nu, U
|
| |
(‘uncle’), originally Thakin Nu
|
pronunciation:
[noo]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1907–95)
|
| biography:
| Burmese statesman and prime minister (1948–56, 1957–8, 1960–2), born in Wakema, S Myanmar (formerly Burma). He studied at Rangoon University, and came to prominence through student political movements (1934). Imprisoned by the British for sedition (1940), he was released by the Japanese and served in Ba Maw's puppet administration. In 1946 he became president of the Burmese Constituent Assembly, and then the first prime minister of the independent Burmese Republic. He was finally overthrown by a military coup in 1962, and imprisoned, but released in 1966. He then lived abroad organizing resistance to the military regime, but returned to Burma in 1980 to become a Buddhist monk. Following the uprising in 1988, he formed an Alliance for Peace and Democracy, which led to his house arrest until 1992. |
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