Burma democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi confirms visit to Britain Suu Kyi, 66, was first detained in 1989, and spent 15 of the next 21 years in detention until her release from house arrest in November 2010, refused to leave the country during the brief periods when she was not held by authorities, for fear of not being allowed to return. She won one of her party's 43 seats in this month's by-election following a series of reforms under President Thein Sein, a former general, including the release of political prisoners, more media freedom, dialogue with ethnic militias and an exchange rate unification seen crucial to fixing the economy. Suu Kyi was invited to visit Britain when she met Prime Minister David Cameron in Rangoon on Friday. At the time, she said the fact that she would consider the offer, rather than reject it outright, showed "great progress" had been achieved in Burma. "Two years ago I would have said thank you for the invitation, but sorry," she added. Suu Kyi's long refusal to leave Burma characterised her steely determination to defy the ruling junta, which offered to release her from house arrest to be with her late husband, Michael Aris, who died of cancer in Britain in 1999. Their story was played out on the big screen late last year in the film "The Lady," as she is affectionately known, with Malaysian action star Michelle Yeoh playing Suu Kyi. The daughter of assassinated independence hero Aung San visited Burma in April 1988 to take care of her dying mother, Khin Kyi, a former ambassador to India an Nepal. Her NLD went on to win by a landslide a 1990 election for a constitution-drafting assembly, but the military ignored the result, leading to a two-decade political stalemate between the junta and Suu Kyi's opposition.