News story

PM's message to Aung San Suu Kyi on her 65th birthday

The Prime Minister has written to the Burmese pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi as she marks her 65th birthday.

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Mr Cameron promised that both he and the British government will do everything they can to help achieve liberty for the people of Burma.

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 14 of the last 20 years under house arrest in Burma for advocating democracy and respect for human rights in her country.

The PM’s letter reads:

Dear Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

Today you will mark yet another birthday under house arrest - cut off from your children and your family. My thoughts, and thoughts of so many people in Britain and across the world, will be with you and with the people of Burma. The injustice of your continuing detention mirrors the injustice that the regime has inflicted on your country and your people for so many years. Throughout that time, you have stood firm, at enormous personal cost, for the principles of liberty and justice. You have become a powerful symbol of the strength of the human spirit.

Like my predecessor, I personally have long found your example deeply inspiring. I want to assure you that as Prime Minister, I will maintain a close interest in Burma. The British Government I lead will do all it can, both internationally, working through the United Nations, and bilaterally, to bring a brighter future for Burma and your people, in which they enjoy full human rights and true democracy.

I have never forgotten your own request: that we should use our liberty to help the Burmese people to obtain theirs. I promise we will do everything we can to achieve that.

Read more: Foreign Office Ministers call for immediate and unconditional release of  Aung San Suu Kyi.

Read more: Foreign Office Facebook wall on Burma.

Published 19 June 2010