June 19, 2005 - (AP) With placards in Bangladesh and speeches across Europe, supporters of detained Myanmar democracy heroine Aung San Suu Kyi celebrated the Nobel laureate's 60th birthday on Sunday by calling for her freedom. But at home, the ruling junta arrested about a dozen Suu Kyi followers who wore T-shirts bearing her photo and the slogan "Set her free" while attending prayers at the capital's famed golden Shwedagon pagoda. They were freed only after they removed the shirts.

While Suu Kyi — who has spent almost 10 of the last 16 years under confinement — remained locked up at her residence, members of her National League for Democracy gathered at their headquarters several miles away for a traditional ceremony, offering food to Buddhist monks.

Later, they released 10 doves and 61 balloons into the air, signifying the start of Suu Kyi's 61st year. More than 30 plainclothes police videotaped the events from across the street.

The military has ruled Myanmar — also known as Burma — since 1962. The current junta came to power in 1988 after crushing a pro-democracy uprising and it has been accused of rampant human rights abuses. It called elections in 1990 but refused to hand over power when Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a landslide victory.
Fearing the political strength of her popularity, the military has detained Suu Kyi repeatedly, most recently in 2003 after a pro-government mob attacked her entourage while she was on a political tour of northern Myanmar.

Suu Kyi's father was the country's martyred independence hero, Gen. Aung San, adding to her popularity.

In a letter to Suu Kyi released Saturday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wrote her "message of nonviolence and courageous support for the establishment of democracy in Burma in the face of the junta's brutal repression and your continuing house arrest inspires people around the world."

Rice has branded Myanmar one of the world's "outposts of tyranny" along with Cuba, Belarus and Zimbabwe.

"The continuing detention of Aung San Suu Kyi and other Burmese who have peacefully expressed their political views is completely unacceptable and groundless," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

In the Philippines, former President Corazon Aquino and pro-democracy groups prayed for Suu Kyi's release.

"I continue to pray for her, that she will finally get justice," said Aquino, who took power in 1986 after helping lead the struggle to oust Philippine strongman Ferdinand Marcos.

Rallies of support were held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Dhaka, Bangladesh, where one child held a poster of Suu Kyi with a message reading "Justice is a dream, but it is a dream that we are determined to realize."

Thailand's Thammasat University awarded Suu Kyi an honorary doctorate as part of a daylong birthday tribute which drew overflow crowds.

About 300 people gathered for a birthday program in Tokyo, Japan, and about 100, including 60 Myanmar exiles, met at a park outside the South Korean capital, Seoul.

In Europe, Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller called Suu Kyi "a symbol for democracy and freedom in the whole world."

Supporters of Suu Kyi in Copenhagen celebrated with concerts, speeches and performances by Burmese dancers.

In neighboring Norway, where Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, dozens of Myanmar refugees and Norwegians celebrated her birthday in front of Parliament in Oslo, wearing T-shirts with her picture and carrying banners calling for her release.

In London, Suu Kyi's supporters planned to mark her birthday by staying indoors under a self-imposed symbolic 24-hour house arrest, while others from Britain's Burmese community planned to gather for a prayer and meditation ceremony.

Britain held Myanmar as its colony until 1948. Suu Kyi's late husband, Michael Aris, was a British lecturer who died in 1999 from prostate cancer.

On Saturday, the city of Edinburgh in Scotland granted Suu Kyi the "Freedom of the City," a symbolic honor akin to being named a privileged citizen. A scroll granting her the honor was placed on an empty chair.

From: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050619/ap_on_re_as/myanmar_birthday_in_detention_3;_ylt=Aqfvu3mAjIsGycfkGf2y7tetubgA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl