Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi Friday, June 17, amid fears she will celebrate her 60th birthday Sunday in captivity, organizers said. In London, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) said "some 100 people joined a vocal protest outside the embassy in support of Aung San Suu Kyi." It stressed "flags and banners were held aloft and protestors called for the release of the estimated 1,300 political prisoners currently being held in Burma."
Similar protests were reportedly in front of at least 50 Burmese Embassies around the world as part of the Global Day of Action for the Burmese democracy leader, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 "for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights"
MORE AWARDS
In 2000, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from the United States, and is also the recipient of the 1990 Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament. She is the world’s only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient.
CSW said it had joined a coalition of groups representing the people of Burma, including the Free Burma Coalition UK and the Burma Campaign UK. As the leader of the National League for Democracy, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been imprisoned and under house arrest for most of the last 16 years.
In May 2002, Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest, but on 30 May 2003, she and her supporters were reportedly attacked by mobs in Depayin, which human rights watchers said was orchestrated by the military.
AGAIN HOUSE ARREST
Aung San Suu Kyi was detained and then placed under house arrest again. At least 265 people have been arrested, killed or disappeared during the attack and the ensuing crackdown, CSW said.
“[We] will continue to stand with the people of Burma until freedom and democracy come to their land," CSW Advocacy Director told BosNewsLife in a statement. "The ongoing mistreatment of Aung San Suu Kyi is an outrage and CSW calls on the international community to do more to help the people of Burma in their time of need.”
Burma has been ruled by successive military regimes since 1962, when Ne Win seized power in a coup. The current junta, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), has been in power since 1988. Elections were held in 1990, and the National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won over 80 per cent of the parliamentary seats but has never been allowed to form a government.
MANY JAILED
The SPDC has imprisoned at least 1,300 prisoners of conscience, including Christians, and "has the highest number of child soldiers in the world," CSW said. Human rights groups have accused Burma of widespread use of forced labor, human minesweepers, systematic rape, destruction of villages and crops, religious persecution and extrajudicial killings in ethnic areas such as Karen, Karenni and Shan states.
Christian Freedom International, another human rights groups working in the region, said recently that Karen people of Burma, a predominantly Christian ethnic minority group, are among those persecuted. Many thousands have fled to refugee camps along the Burma/Thailand border [as] they are under the constant attack of the brutal military regime in power in Burma…"CFI said.
Burmese officials have often declined to discuss alleged human rights abuses and have given contradictory messages about the future role of Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters. (With BosNewsLife Research, Stefan J. Bos and reports from Burma).
