Global campaign marks Suu Kyi's 64th birthday

Global campaign marks Suu Kyi's 64th birthday
Fri Jun 19, 6:05 am ET

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi spent her 64th birthday locked in prison Friday as global condemnation over her trial and demands for her freedom erupted across Twitter, Facebook and other Web sites and at rallies worldwide.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate planned to mark the day by sharing food with her prison guards.

"Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will celebrate her birthday by treating the people around her to rice and chocolate cake," said lawyer Nyan Win, who left several gifts at the prison including a chocolate cake, an apple cake, three bouquets of orchids and 50 lunch boxes of Indian-style biryani rice. "Daw" is a term of respect in Myanmar.

"She really appreciates the efforts and said she was sorry she wasn't able to thank everyone individually," he said, noting that lawyers have informed her of the worldwide campaign but did not personally see her Friday.

Hollywood stars like Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, celebrities Madonna and David Beckham, Nobel laureates and world leaders joined voices to call for the military government to release Suu Kyi. She has now spent 14 birthdays in detention.

Many posted online messages on social networking sites and videos on YouTube in what human rights groups called an unprecedented and enormously powerful tool to harness support for Suu Kyi and highlight her struggle.

"We must not stand by as she is silenced again. Now is the time for the international community to speak with one voice," says part of a 64-word message on a new Web site — http://64forsuu.org — signed by dozens of dignitaries and celebrities. Among them were George Clooney, Sarah Jessica Parker, Robert De Niro, Nicole Kidman, director Steven Spielberg and fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureates Elie Wiesel and Desmond Tutu.

"Aung San Suu Kyi is an inspiration to her country and to the rest of the world," Paul McCartney said in his own message on the site, while Yoko Ono tweeted: "FREE Daw Aung San Suu Kyi NOW!"

The Web site is the online hub for a campaign — "64 words for Aung San Suu Kyi" — that was organized by a coalition of human rights groups including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Burma Campaign UK and Not On Our Watch, a charity founded by Clooney, Pitt and other actors.

The site is blocked in Myanmar, where the junta typically bans politically sensitive Web sites, but is being avidly read by Net-savvy citizens who use proxy Internet servers to get around censorship.

Rallies worldwide kicked off in Yangon, amid tight security. At a morning ceremony outside her party's headquarters, about 300 supporters released 64 sparrows and 10 doves into the sky with an array of colored balloons. They sang "Happy Birthday" and cut a cake in her honor.

Small protests were held outside Myanmar embassies in Manila, Seoul and New Delhi, where 33 Myanmar nationals who protested outside their embassy were detained for not having a proper permit, police said.

In Brussels, Suu Kyi's image was projected onto the European Parliament. Leaders of the 27-nation European Union planned to issue a declaration calling for her "immediate, unconditional release" at the end of a summit later in the day.

Suu Kyi has spent more than 13 of the last 19 years in detention, mostly under house arrest. Her National League for Democracy party won Myanmar's last elections in 1990 — a result the junta refused to honor.

Suu Kyi's situation changed dramatically last month after an uninvited American man swam to her tightly guarded lakeside home and stayed two days. She was arrested May 14 and placed in a "guest house" at Myanmar's notorious Insein Prison, where she is now on trial for violating the terms of her house arrest.

The ruling junta is expected to deliver a guilty verdict, which could put Suu Kyi in prison for up to five years. The trial has been delayed to allow appeals by defense lawyers to reinstate witnesses. The High Court on Friday set the final appeal for June 24.

For the first time, Suu Kyi campaigners have teamed up with Twitter.

"So, if you tweet on Suu Kyi it's automatically integrated on the site," said Mark Farmaner, director of the Burma Campaign UK. "Sites like Facebook and Twitter enable us to reach millions of people."

More than 10,000 postings have poured onto the site, which was launched May 27 and allows anyone to upload video, text, images or tweets of support for Suu Kyi. It lists locations of concerts, candlelight vigils and other gatherings for Suu Kyi in more than 20 cities worldwide, including Bangkok, Dublin, London, Paris, Prague, Sydney, Tokyo and New York.

A Facebook page set up for Suu Kyi has attracted some 93,000 supporters, up from 40,000 in mid-May. Postings from around the world call Suu Kyi an "icon," "a hero," "an inspiration" and wish her "Happy Birthday!" in a variety of languages. Many replaced their profile photos with one of Suu Kyi.

YouTube videos uploaded to the site include messages from billionaire Richard Branson and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

"For too long, the world has failed to act in the face of this intolerable injustice," Brown says in his video. "We must do all we can to make this birthday the last you spend without your freedom."