65th Birthday Under House Arrest
19 June 2010 (Chinland Guardian): People across the world today joined the 65th birthday celebration of Aung San Suu Kyi in their residing countries, protesting against the ‘unfair’ detention of Burma’s pro-democracy leader by the ruling military regime.
(Picture: Aung san Suu Kyi photo. Pic courtesy: Guardian.co.uk)
In London, about 200 people gathered in front of Burmese Embassy in a demonstration organised by NLD-LA UK in association with UK-based organisations and individuals, calling for the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi along with other political prisoners in Burma.
In his statement, President Barack Obama said: “I wish to convey my best wishes to Aung San Suu Kyi, the world’s only imprisoned Nobel Peace Laureate, on the occasion of her 65th birthday on June 19.”
“Her determination, courage, and personal sacrifice in working for human rights and democratic change in Burma inspire all of us who stand for freedom and justice,” he continued as he called on the Burmese government to release Aung San Suu Kyi and all political prisoners immediately and unconditionally.
More than 22 cities around the world held demonstrations, concerts, performances, conferences, seminars, protests and numerous other events to mark the celebration of Aung San Suu Kyi’s 65th birthday, according to Burma Campaign UK.
Email groups and social websites such as Facebook have also been mushroomed with birthday wishes and postcards as well as presents for Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent her 65th birthday under house arrest in Burma.
Still being detained by Burma’s military regime, Aung Sun Suu Kyi has spent almost 15 of the last 21 years in detention.
Desmond Tutu and Aung San Suu Kyi agree, Myanmar elections “shameful”, a “farce”
The South African archbishop is in favour of sanctions against the military junta, compares Burma’s opposition leader to Nelson Mandela. One day, he said, she will be “freely elected” to lead her country. The Burmese Nobel Peace Prize winner appeals to the people to stand up to the unjust law.
“We are more likely to find snow in hell than free democratic elections in Burma under the present dispensation,” said Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu in an interview with The Irrawaddy, a dissident Burmese newspaper. He told the paper that the election was a “farce”, reiterating earlier criticism made by Aung San Suu Kyi, who had labeled the military junta’s election law as “shameful”. The Anglican religious leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate for his struggle against apartheid in South Africa, said he hoped that one day he might travel to Yangon to meet the opposition leader.
“My dear Sister Nobel Laureate, my dear sisters and brothers in Burma, we admire your courage and determination,” he said. “One day we will come to Rangoon to join you in your celebrations when you, my sister, are inaugurated as the true, freely elected leader of Burma just as Nelson Mandela came out of jail and became our leader.”
Desmond Tutu backs international sanctions against Myanmar and calls the elections, which are scheduled for later this year, a “farce.”
“How can you claim to hold a free democratic election when the leader of the main opposition which won a landslide victory in the last truly democratic and free election is excluded and where the election commissioners will be handpicked by the junta?” the prelate said.
National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi also slammed the election law, calling it “shameful”, her lawyer and party spokesman Nyan Win said. He explained that the piece of legislation excludes people who have been convicted, including political prisoners, or are waiting their final sentence. It is thus a law designed to exclude one woman, and one woman alone, from the electoral process.
“The laws include certain facts that show it was obviously meant for one individual and that makes it very shameful. It cheapens the legislation,” Win quoted Aung San Suu Kyi as saying. For this reason, she made an appeal to the Burmese people to stand up to the unjust law.
Meanwhile the US government said it would not recognise the outcome of the polls. “There’s no hope that this election will be credible,” US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said, adding the laws make the election a “mockery of the democratic process.”
www.SperoNews-World/Global: Asia News March 12, 2010
Burma’s suffering is also ours!
In the week when Amnesty International awarded Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi its highest accolade, Ambassador of Conscience, a fellow Nobel laureate pays tribute. 
I think of my sister Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi every day. Her picture hangs on the wall of my office, reminding me that, thousands of miles away in Asia, a nation is oppressed. Every day I ask myself: have I done everything I can try to end the atrocities being committed in Burma? And I pray that world leaders will ask themselves the same question. For if they did, the answer would be “no”, and perhaps their conscience will finally force them to act.
Humankind has the ability to live in freedom and in peace. We have seen that goodness has triumphed over evil; we have witnessed political transitions in South Africa, and elsewhere, evidencing that we live in a moral universe. Our world is sometimes lacking wise and good leadership or, as in the case of Burma, the leadership is forbidden to lead.
Aung San Suu Kyi has now been detained for more than 13 years. She recently passed her 5,000th day in detention. Every one of those days is a tragedy and a lost opportunity. The whole world, not just the people of Burma, suffers from this loss. Click here to read more