Date |
Activity |
Venue |
Wed 8 June |
Amnesty Banner mosaic of U Win Tin displayed |
City Chambers |
Wed 8 June |
Printing workshops with Chris Robinson begin |
Citywide outreach |
Wed 8 June |
Aung San Suu Kyi Mural
on St John’s Church revealed |
St John’s, West End |
Sat 11 June -22 June |
“BEST Wishes Aung San Suu Kyi.” Major exhibition at City Arts Centre: Paintings & Photographs by Chris Robinson; Birthday cards drawn by refugee and child artists from Edinburgh and Burma. Open workshops by Chris Robinson; Photographs by Norma and Maurice Joseph |
City Arts Centre |
Thurs 16 June |
Interfaith Seminar: Faith as a tool for Democracy |
St George’s, West End |
Fri 17 June |
Burmese Film event |
Filmhouse |
Sat 18 June |
‘Freedom of the City’ ceremony to bestow the honour to Aung San Suu Kyi on behalf of all of Burma’s 1300+ political prisoners |
Lord Provost’s Reception at City Chambers |
Sat
18 June |
Burma Awareness Exhibition and internet café with performance of Northern International’s acclaimed ‘The Burma Play’ |
City Arts Centre |
Sat
18 June |
‘BEST Wishes Aung San Suu Kyi’ – Birthday Party and rally with line up of celebrity and Burma speakers and video link.
Organised by Amnesty, Burma Campaign, BEST and Scottish Refugee Week Committee. Live party music from Community Arts Organisations & local bands |
Parliament Square |
Sun 19 June |
A guided contemplative garden walk highlighting the Burmese collection of plants |
Royal Botanic Gardens |
Sun 19 June |
Birthday Lunch – a typical meal eaten in Burmese refugee camps in Thailand |
Edinburgh Refugee Centre |
Sun 19 June |
An interfaith day of prayer for Burma |
City-wide |
Sun 19 June |
‘The Burma Play’ |
City Arts Centre |
Mon 20 June |
‘The Burma Play’:
School performance and discussion |
City Schools |
Mon 20 June |
‘The Burma Play’:
Performance and Education Event organised by BEST & Active Citizenship Group |
St Georges Church |
Tues 21 June |
‘Fascist Disneyland’ Readings from ‘Letters from Burma’ written by Aung San Suu Kyi with Sarah Boyack MSP, Liz Lochhead and Stewart Simpson |
National Library of Scotland |
Sat 25 June |
‘The Hour of Burning Clouds’: Burmese Storytelling with traditional 19th Century Burmese marionettes |
National Library of Scotland |
|
“Please use your freedom to promote ours”
Aung San Suu Kyi
“The City of Edinburgh resolves to confer the Freedom of the City on Aung San Suu Kyi, Head of the National League for Democracy in Burma, in recognition of her personal courage and relentless pursuit of democratic justice in that country. The Council also recognizes the commitment made by all those seeking to secure democracy and human rights in Burma by non-violent means."
Following lobbying by BEST Trustees, in 2004, the City of Edinburgh Council unanimously voted to bestow the ‘Freedom of the City’ on Aung San Suu Kyi, joining fellow Nobel Peace Laureate Nelson Mandela, as one of only two people not of Edinburgh origin to receive this award.
In doing so, the Council took an active decision to raise public awareness about the continuing human rights abuses taking place in Burma – a country with long standing connections with Scotland, both from the days of British Empire and where 60 years ago many Scots fought and died in the Second World War.
Given her continued detention by the Burmese military, the Council opted to honour her in absentia, marking her 60th birthday on 19th June 2005 hoping that one day in the future, she too will be able to travel to Edinburgh, to sign the roll of honour.
Aung San Suu Kyi - Burma's elected leader - was born in 1945, the daughter of Burma's national hero Aung San. She was two years old when he was assassinated, just before Burma gained the independence from Britain, to which he had dedicated his life.
After her education in Rangoon, Delhi and Oxford, she worked for the United Nations in New York and Bhutan. She married Oxford academic, Michael Aris and spent several years raising a family in Britain. Then in 1988 she returned to Burma to care for her dying mother.
Her return coincided with the outbreak of a spontaneous revolt against 26 years of political repression and economic decline and she quickly emerged as the most effective and articulate leader of the movement and the party she founded, the National League for Democracy, going on to win a colossal electoral victory in 1990, with over 82% of the popular vote.
But the military junta refused to transfer power as it had promised the UN and has kept her imprisoned or under house-arrest in Rangoon for much of the intervening period.
On her 60th birthday in June, Aung San Suu Kyi had spent a total of 2,523 days in detention, having been allowed no contact with the outside world for almost two years … Two years on, each day, month and year that passes, the total rises and rises.
“Education is a key component to liberation, self realisation and rebuilding lives…”
Aung San Suu Kyi |
