Renewed calls for freedom as Suu Kyi turns 60

June 19, 2005 - 3:56PM

Aung San Suu Kyi, the detained leader of Burma's pro-democracy movement, turns 60 today alone and under house arrest, amid an international chorus of demands for the Nobel laureate's freedom.

For the woman known affectionately as The Lady, her birthday will likely pass like any other of her latest, two-year-old house arrest, during which the regime has allowed her daily basics such as vegetables and little else.

But her supporters plan protests and other activities around the world to demand the freedom of a woman whom the military junta has silenced, but who remains an essential figure for her South-East Asian nation's political future.

Demonstrations began on Thursday in Kuala Lumpur, where 68 activists were arrested protesting outside the Burmese embassy. Public gatherings without a permit are illegal in Malaysia.

In Washington on Friday, Representative Tom Lantos, a noted human rights campaigner, led exiled supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi in a taunting "Happy Birthday" chorus outside Rangoon's embassy as he delivered 6,000 birthday cards from Americans.

More demonstrations and other activities were planned in Tokyo, New Delhi, Paris and a dozen other cities, according to pro-democracy exile groups.

Aung San Suu Kyi may be able to hear of the protests on a short-wave radio, but few expect the global calls for her release to sway the country's reclusive generals, who have shown themselves impervious to international demands, even in the face of crippling US and European sanctions.

Turning 60 is an important birthday in strongly Buddhist Burma, marking the completion of a fifth cycle through the traditional calendar based on 12-year periods.

But her friends and relatives said the junta was unlikely to allow Buddhist monks to her rambling lakeside home in Rangoon for religious ceremonies, something it had at times permitted in the past.

"I don't think she'll be getting any special privileges for her 60th birthday," one of her relatives said in Rangoon.

"Her house arrest this time around is much worse than it has ever been before," a close friend of the family said. "Only her doctor gets to see her now, and that's only once every month."

She receives a daily supply of vegetables and other basic goods every morning, but even her produce is thoroughly screened at the well-guarded gate to her compound.

"At least she's getting fresh fruits and vegetables on a regular basis and we're happy about this," a family friend said.

Her National League for Democracy alliance - which scored a landslide victory in 1990 elections but was never allowed to take office - said the party has standing orders not to accept any gifts for her but to donate them to the families of the other more than 1,300 political prisoners here.

Suu Kyi's latest incarceration began in May 2003 after her convoy was attacked in northern Burma by thugs in what was seen as a botched assassination attempt ordered by a junta that is frightened by her popularity.

Her birthday has proved a lightning rod for international criticism of the regime, an international pariah for its human rights abuses.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch issued new reports detailing abuses by the junta, which have included stepping up political arrests and targeting civilians in its military campaigns.

The US President, George Bush, yesterday praised Aung San Suu Kyi, saying she "inspired those who stand for freedom", while US lawmakers compared her to Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi.

Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, who was a Rangoon ally while in power, also called for her release, saying that freeing Aung San Suu Kyi "would make things easier for everyone".

In Europe, Norway's Nobel committee, which gave Aung San Suu Kyi its peace prize in 1991, called attention to her plight and called for the world's only detained Nobel laureate to be freed immediately.

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, promised to "take every opportunity" to help her, while Germany's Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer, and British Foreign Minister Jack Straw also sent her birthday wishes and called for her release.

Aung San Suu Kyi's critics have said by silencing her, the junta has crippled the NLD, showing its over-reliance on her for leadership.

Even critics of the alliance, which is struggling to chart a new course with Aung San Suu Kyi locked out of sight, agree that she remains an essential figure in Burma's politics.

People close to her in Rangoon all welcomed the international appeals, which one family friend described as "the best gift for her 60th birthday".

