Protests likely to fall on deaf ears

AUNG SAN SUU KYI, the detained leader of Burma’s pro-democracy movement, turned 60 yesterday alone and under house arrest, amid an international chorus of demands for the Nobel laureate’s freedom.

For the woman known affectionately as “The Lady”, her birthday will likely pass like any other of her latest, two-year-old house arrest, during which the regime has allowed her daily basics such as vegetables and little else.

Suu Kyi may be able to hear of the protests on a short-wave radio, but few expect the global calls for her release to sway the country’s reclusive generals, who have shown themselves impervious to international demands, even in the face of crippling US and European sanctions.