Cory wishes Suu Kyi freedom

Former President Corazon Aquino and pro-democracy groups offered prayers for the unconditional release of Aung San Suu Kyi on her 60th birthday yesterday, pledging to help her crusade to bring democracy to military-ruled Myanmar.

Suu Kyi remained under house arrest in the country’s capital, Yangon, despite long-standing calls by the international community for her freedom. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has spent almost 10 of the last 16 years in confinement.

"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. She has lobbied for Suu Kyi’s release for many years.

Rep. Loretta Ann Rosales, a former political detainee during Marcos’s rule, said she sent birthday greetings and a statement of support to Suu Kyi, pledging to continue to work with other Southeast Asian legislators to press Myanmar’s military rulers to democratize.

"The most befitting present I could offer to reflect the esteem and admiration I hold for Aung San Suu Kyi is my commitment to action... until she and the people of Burma are free," Rosales said in her letter.

Rosales filed a resolution early this year asking the powerful House of Representatives, where she is a member, to prod the government to oppose Myanmar’s upcoming chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations unless the junta frees Suu Kyi and other dissidents and fulfills its promise to democratize.

On Friday, left-wing activists brought a cake and balloons marked "Free Aung San Suu Kyi" to the Myanmar Embassy and demanded her immediate release. They dispersed without any incident or arrests.

The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962, and the current junta came to power in 1988 after crushing a pro-democracy uprising. It called elections in 1990 but refused to hand over power when Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, won in a landslide. — AP