I didn’t know that Salman Rushdie and Aung San Suu Kyi shared a birthday:
On this day, my birthday and yours, I always remember your long ordeal and silently applaud your endurance. This year, silence is impossible. It is not any action of yours, but your house arrest, which symbolizes the suppression of Burmese democracy, that is criminal. It is your trial, not your struggle, that is unjust. On this day, on every day, I am with you.
Rushdie’s message launches the Sixty-Four Words for Aung San Suu Kyi project. Citizens of the world are invited to leave a 64 word message for Aung San, in honour of her 64th birthday on 19th June. Alternatively, you can leave a 64 character twitter instead, using the hashtag #assk64.
The project is led by the Burma Campaign UK and was created in only six days, which is a remarkable feat. In addition to Salman Rushdie, the site carries messages from Gordon Brown, David Cameron, and George Clooney. Why not add your message, and then let others know that you’ve done so?
Photographed at a press conference in her home, September 1996, after a government crackdown on her party. By flickr user taptaptap
I wish that there was something more we could do.
Tell me about it. The Burmese junta seems so impervious to international pressure.
However, they do rely on India and China for trade. Protests in the past have focused on these countries, rather than Burma itself.
If only Burma had oil, Bush’n'Blair would have waded in for sure and toppled them.
There are protests outside the Burmese embassy today.
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