CSW joins global campaign to free Aung San Suu Kyi

|PIC1|Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) has announced its participation in a new website calling for the release of Burma’s democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and all of Burma’s political prisoners.

Launching today with the backing of major celebrities and a coalition of NGOs, the website will become the global hub of the international campaign to release Aung San Suu Kyi.

The launch coincides with the day that, according to the Burmese regime, Aung San Suu Kyi’s house arrest expires. The UN has already ruled that her detention is illegal.

www.64forSuu.org allows anyone to upload video, text, image or twitter messages of support to Burma’s imprisoned democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

The website aims to demonstrate the scale of outrage over her continued detention by encouraging high profile individuals and the public around the world to write a 64 word message, a “64”, that will be delivered on Aung San Suu Kyi’s 64th birthday on 19 June.

The website is supported by Burma Campaign UK, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Amnesty International, Not On Our Watch, Open Society Institute, Avaaz, English Pen, the Trade Union Congress and the US Campaign for Burma.

Messages have been posted on the site by high-profile supporters including Prime Minister Gordon Brown, leader of the Opposition David Cameron, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and some of the world’s best known celebrities and politicians including George Clooney, former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Senator John McCain, David Beckham, Bono, Robert De Niro and Steven Spielberg.

This announcement follows the closure of a global petition, launched by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners and supported by CSW, for the release of Burma’s politicial prisoners.

Over 650,000 people from more than 220 countries and territories signed the petition, in “the largest global coordinated action for Burma”. CSW secured signatures from some of the UK’s most high-profile politicians, including the Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague and former Labour Party leader Lord Kinnock. The petition will be delivered to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Commenting on the campaign launch, CSW East Asia Team Leader, Benedict Rogers, said: “We are excited to be involved in this groundbreaking campaign. We encourage everyone to take five minutes to provide a '64' in support of Aung San Suu Kyi, and show her that she hasn’t been forgotten.

"Aung San Suu Kyi has committed no crime whatsoever yet is imprisoned by a criminal regime. The military dictatorship must not be given any excuse to continue to hold her captive - we are determined to see her returned to freedom.”