Suu Kyi spends 58th birthday in detention

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi spent her 58th birthday today locked up in an undisclosed place by a military government that has remained defiant of demands by friends and foes to free her.

While many foreign governments have expressed outrage over the arrest, there were predictably no signs of protests or unusual activities in Myanmar, also known as Burma, which has been ruled with an iron fist by the military since 1962.

“The brutal rulers of Burma need to understand that the only acceptable way forward is to release Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters and to resume dialogue with her and with her party,” US Secretary of State Colin Powell said in Cambodia.

Nobel Peace laureate Suu Kyi has been held incommunicado since May 30, following violent clashes in northern Myanmar where she was on a tour. The government says the violence started when her motorcade tried to plough through a group of pro-junta demonstrators.

Opposition groups outside Myanmar say her motorcade was ambushed by pro-junta mobs to intimidate her and curb the growing appeal of her democracy message among rural residents who have become apathetic to politics under military rule.

The dissidents say up to 70 people may have died in the attack, while the government says four were killed.

Myanmar exiles planned protests later today in India, Thailand, Japan, the United States, Australia, Europe and Canada. Six activists in Bangkok said they would fast for 58 hours to mark Suu Kyi’s 58th birthday.

“We are unwavering in our opposition to the brutal dictatorship,” said Ko Ko Lay, a student organising a protest in San Francisco. “It is well past time for regime change in Burma.”

Even Myanmar’s partners in the 10-member Association of South-East Asian Nations have told the generals to free Suu Kyi quickly, a remarkable departure from the group’s policy of not commenting on each other’s internal affairs.

The Myanmar government remains defiant.

Foreign Minister Win Aung told his counterparts at an ASEAN meeting this week in Cambodia that Suu Kyi is being shielded from assassins and will be released when “the situation returns to normal”.

Few ASEAN ministers have bought that explanation.

The current junta came to power in 1988 after crushing a pro-democracy movement that saw the birth of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party.

The generals called elections in 1990 but refused to hand over power when the NLD won. They say the transition to democracy must be gradual to prevent the breakup of the ethnically diverse country.