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Worldwide Rallies Planned Outside Chinese Embassies Wednesday For Suu Kyi

(RTTNews) - Protest rallies have been planned outside Chinese embassies in 12 cities across the world on Wednesday to show solidarity with Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

Wednesday marks 12 years in detention for the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and the day also coincides with the 62nd anniversary of the UN charter.

The organizers of the rallies, a coalition of charities including human rights group Amnesty International and the Burma Campaign, said campaigners would be stepping up the pressure for UN action.

Protests rallies are planned in London, Paris, Berlin, Dublin, Vienna, Sydney, Washington, Toronto, New York, Brasilia, Cape Town and Bangkok with shackled demonstrators wearing Suu Kyi masks and the white cloth of Burmese political prisoners.

Special Envoy of UN Secretary-General, Ibrahim Gambari, currently on a six-nation tour of Asia aimed at increasing the pressure on Yangon's junta rulers, is in China to seek the communist nation's cooperation. He will be returning to Myanmar early November to continue his efforts in bringing about a political reconciliation between the junta government and the NLD leader Suu Kyi.

Gambari visited Myanmar last month and conveyed the international community's outrage over the regime's violent crackdown on anti-government rallies led by Buddhist monks that left at least 13 people dead. Hundreds of people have also been detained in overnight raids following the pro-democracy protests.

China, one of Burma's closest allies, has expressed its deep concern about the prevailing situation there and has called on the Myanmar government to exercise utmost restraint in dealing with demonstrators. But at the same time China has maintained that it will not interfere in its Myanmar's internal affairs.

And in a welcome development, the military junta government of Myanmar on Monday agreed to allow the UN special rapporteur on human rights, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro to visit the country after refusing permission for four years.

Meanwhile, six female Nobel peace laureates have jointly appealed to the UN urging it to help Suu Kyi gain her freedom.

"The detention of Aung San Suu Kyi is the most visible manifestation of the regime's brutality but it is only the tip of the iceberg," they wrote in an open letter published in UK newspaper The Guardian.

Campaign director for the Burma Campaign UK, Zoya Phan said that despite events of recent weeks, there seems to be no movement in the process for freeing Aung San Suu Kyi or any of the other hundreds of political prisoners.

"The Burmese regime may be the jailer of Aung San Suu Kyi but China holds the key to her release. China must now make it clear that they will support action to bring an end to this continued repression. Words are not enough to make the junta change their minds," Phan added.

The 62-year-old Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi led the National League for Democracy to a landslide victory in elections in 1990, but the military junta refused to recognize the result and hand over power. She has spent most of the time since under house arrest in Yangon or in jail.

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