Aung San Suu Kyi is Burma’s opposition leader and a Nobel Laureate. She was sent to trial in Rangoon Monday May 18, 2009, accused of breaching the country’s tough house arrest laws, after American ex-serviceman, John Yettaw, swam across Rangoon’s Lake Inya to her home and spent two nights. Suu Kyi spent 13 of the past 19 years under house arrest after, according to results in Burma’s 1990 general election, she earned the right to be Prime Minister. Her detention by the military junta prevented her from assuming her political role as Prime Minister.
In neighboring Thailand, Burmese activists and pro-democracy supporters rallied outside the Burma’s Embassy, calling for her immediate release and assistance from the international community.
In reaction, on Monday May 18, 2009 the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown issued an open letter to Burmese pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi. Read it here:
“Dear Daw Suu
The Burmese regime continues to resist the righteous clamour from your people and from the international community for your release. As you and the Burmese people are denied your democratic rights and freedoms the only way for me to communicate with you is through this open letter.
I wanted to publish it to let you know that you are not alone – that people are standing with you not just here in Britain, but everywhere that democracy and freedom are upheld.
We are heartened by your tremendous courage, your inspirational leadership, and by the knowledge that no oppression is so great that the forces of liberty cannot prevail. The history books are full of stories of injustice. But they are also full of stories of hope, resistance and the victories that satisfy the deep human yearning to be free. I am confident that your story will stand prominently among those that show that from
the deepest wells of despair can come the greatest triumphs of human endeavour.
Inspired by and in solidarity with you, the British Government will continue to work with our international partners to support Burma’s path to stability, peace and economic recovery. The UN Security Council has set out the steps necessary for a return to democracy in Burma. I have worked with our partners in the EU to maintain sanctions that are tough and targeted against those individuals who wish to deny the Burmese people their rights. And I will continue to press your neighbours in Asia to work even harder for your release and that of all political prisoners in Burma.
My message to the Burmese regime is clear the people of Burma have suffered nearly half a century of conflict and isolation; it is time to embrace a new beginning. So I say to the Generals who imprison you: the time for a transition to democracy is now. By excluding you from that future, by silencing and imprisoning you, they condemn your country to further decades of poverty and exclusion.
Your continued imprisonment reminds all of us that we should not take for granted the institution of democracy for which you campaign That we should not rest until you are able to play your rightful role in a free and secure Burma. And that our place is alongside all those who face imprisonment, repression and despair in their battle to build democracy, confront poverty and protect human rights. Daw Suu I want you to know: you are not alone.
Yours sincerely
Gordon Brown”
On May 16, 2007, world leaders published a letter requesting that Myanmar’s military government free Suu Kyi and other political prisoners. The signatories included former U.S. Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Nobel Laureate and former President of Poland Lech Wałęsa, Nobel Laureate and former South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung, and former Philippines President Corazon Aquino.