Thursday, May 28, 2009

George Clooney and Bono join freedom petition for Aung San Suu Kyi

GEORGE CLOONEY has joined celebrities and British PM Gordon Brown in petitioning the Burmese junta to release Aung San Suu Kyi.


The "64 for Aung San Suu Kyi'' campaign wants her 64th birthday on June 19 to be the last she spends under house arrest.

But the junta rejected any move by Clooney or anyone else.
``It is not political, it is not a human rights issue. So we don't accept pressure and interference from abroad,''  Burma's deputy foreign minister Maung Myint told an ASEAN meeting in Thailand.

The campaign has been launched in Britain as Aung San Suu Kyi is on trial behind closed doors on charges of violating the conditions of her house arrest after a US man, John Yettaw, swam across a lake to her home.

It also comes as her supporters marked on Wednesday the 19th anniversary of her National League for Democracy election win which was annulled by the military regime, leading to her house arrest in 2003.