Protests mark Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday
Updated
Burma's detained Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi turns sixty-four today her 14th birthday spent in detention.
Ms Suu Kyi is currently on trial, charged with violating the terms of her house arrest after an American man swam across a lake to her house early last month. A series of protests will be held around the world to mark Ms Suu Kyi's birthday, with several celebrities, including Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, David Beckham and George Clooney, will mark the event with messages of support.
Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Jeremy Woodrum is director with US Campaign Burma
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WOODRUM: They are posting messages on web pages, recording videos, and being interviewed so that the messages can be broadcast inside Burma by a television station in Norway that broadcasts free uncensored news into Burma.
LAM: It would seem that Ms Suu Kyi's case has resonated around the world. I understand that there are quite a few activities of support being organised in many countries?
WOODRUM: Mmm, yeah we had there are just Burma campaigns all around the world and just for our campaign alone, we had 550 different people sign up to host events here in the United States and some internationally for her birthday. So it's interesting, a couple of years ago, I think most of the world didn't know who she was and now she is literally becoming the Nelson Mandela of Burma and perhaps of Asia.
LAM: What do you think this huge show of support worldwide, do you think it might have any impact at all?
WOODRUM: Well yeah, absolutely. I mean the Burmese people inside the country do get international news one way or another and especially when key leaders speak out that are respected by members of the military regime. For example, David Beckham is a hero to many soldiers in the regime. The dictator Than Shwe's grandson is known to idolise David Beckham, so when he speaks out, it's very, very important for those people inside Burma who may be aligned with the military regime to hear that and to think twice about their support for Than Shwe.
LAM: So how is Ms Suu Kyi likely to spend her birthday in jail? Do you think she might be allowed to perhaps see some of her friends at least?
WOODRUM: Wehave not heard anything about that and to be honest I doubt it. She is Insein prison. She is not any longer under house arrest. Dozens of political prisoners have died in that prison and look this is a regime that Tan Shwe, the leader, has attempted to assassinate her before and only sort of through accident did she survive. So we're extremely worried for her health. He could kill her at any moment. He could poison her. There are any number of different things that they could do to her, so the situation is grave and very urgent.
LAM; Indeed, and as we all know, the condition at Insein Prison are notorious and notoriously bad. Have you had any reports of how Ms Suu Kyi is doing? There were concerns last month about her health?
WOODRUM: Well, we don't have any new news about her, because no one is able to meet with her, to find out what is going on, and the International Committee is not able to meet with political prisoners inside Burma, which is really scandalous, so unfortunately we don't know about her immediate condition.
LAM: And, of course, her court case was suspended last week. I understand there is going to be a brief resumption today for a quick hearing. Do we know what's happening in court today?
WOODRUM: Well, there could be, the government is deciding whether to hear a couple of additional witnesses, which her defence attorneys had attempted to call to testify. I believe the trial will resume on June 26th so a bit more consistently.
LAM: Do you see this being a long running saga or do you think the military generals might be quite keen to wrap it up quite quickly?
WOODRUM: Well, I think they seem to want to draw it out, because there has been such an overwhelming show of international support against her detention and against her imprisonment, that perhaps Than Shwe, the leader, was really taken by surprise by this. So it seems that he wants to draw it out in order it hopes the international community will have a short attention span and look the other way. I have to say to the credit of a lot of countries and the leaders around the world, that exactly the opposite is happening. More and more people are speaking up and the issue seems to have some legs and is staying very much in the headlines.
