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Burma Digest Current Issue

Happy birthday wish

for imprisoned Nobel laureate aung san suu kyi

by Jim McNalis

[Jim McNalis is the creator of the very well known sculpture of Aung San Suu Kyi. Jim made the sculpture with clay from Burmese soil which he secretly packed away in his suitcase on his returns home from his occasional trips to Burma.

He presented his famous sculpture of Aung San Suu Kyi to Burmese government in exile who later haned it over to Aung San Suu Kyi’s family in Britain.

Jim also made a sculpture of Saw Bo Mya, the much revered leader of Karen National Union (KNU). KNU are a Karen ethnic resistance force fighting against SPDC military regime in Burma.

Lately, Jim made sculptures of the three famous comedians in Burma, called “the Three Moustache Brothers” who bravely make jokes on SPDC military regime.]

On June 19, 2006 Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma (now called Myanmar) will be celebrating her 61^st birthday. Suu Kyi is the worlds only Nobel Peace Prize winner who is under arrest.

It would be fitting to acknowledge this woman of integrity and high moral courage in a world obsessed with celebrities and people who are distinguished by beauty, notoriety, greed, outrageous behavior and self serving leadership.

Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for most of the 17 years since 1988, when the military junta violently crushed huge pro-democracy demonstrations. Thousands of Burmese were shot down in the streets. In 1990, the regime refused to turn over the reins of government to Suu Kyi and her party who had won the first general elections by a landslide.

In May of 2003 the junta released Suu Kyi and she immediately began to tour the country reorganizing and reinvigorating her party. The regime, angered that huge crowds were attending her rallies, sent thugs to attack her and her colleagues. Many of her supporters were killed and an assassination attempt was made on her.

On May 26, the countries military dictatorship arbitrarily extended her sentence one more year. On June 8, Suu Kyi was hospitalized in Rangoon with a “stomach ailment”.

Aung San Suu Kyi is one of those rare individuals who possess the conscience and moral courage to pursue goals that are more important to them than their own interests or well-being.

Suu Kyi has made the choice to give up everything to support the Burmese people and their desire for freedom and democracy. She has never been tried in a court and has been condemned to live in complete isolation. She is allowed no contact with her two sons, family members, friends and colleagues from her political party. Her dying husband was denied a visa to spend his last days with her when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 1999. Her phone lines have been cut and she is allowed no contact or communication of any kind.

Because of her enormous popularity and support among the people the junta would simply like her to die or leave the country. She refuses to leave the country and abandon her people since she is the single person who all Burmese trust to bring them democracy and free them from the oppressive dictatorship.

As for dying, the regime has systematically denied her adequate nutrition and health care during the past 17 years, and has made several nearly successful assassination attempts on her the few times she has been released from arrest.

This diminutive 98 lb. scholarly, mother of two sons who is resisting one of the most brutal military dictatorships on earth is truly a noble human being. Her courage and perseverance are truly admirable and inspiring. People with her nobility of the human spirit ennoble us all.

It would be fitting on this day to recognize the integrity of this amazing woman and to honor her selflessness and moral courage in fighting for freedom and democracy in Burma.

It would be nice to wish her a happy birthday and tell her she is not alone, but the generals have made that impossible.

Jim McNalis

[Request: If you can kindly translate this English article into Burmese for our Burmese readers, please translate and send it to BDeditors@tayzathuria.org.uk]

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