Dear Friends,

Today, Aung San Suu Kyi turns 64 years old. She will spend this birthday in Insein prison, as a prisoner of Than Shwe’s military regime — simply because she has called for democracy and human rights for the people of Burma.

We and our colleagues throughout the world have been doing a ton of work to make sure that she remains in the spotlight.  Over 560 people signed up to host events in their homes through our “Arrest Yourself” campaign!

If you were not able to host an event, we are asking you to make a special donation of $64, $640 or $6,400 today to the U.S. Campaign for Burma in honor of Aung San Suu Kyi, so that we can continue our work to advocate for her freedom, and human rights for everyone in Burma.

Your money will be put to good use.  Here are only a few things we have organized lately:

• This year, through our annual “Arrest Yourself” campaign, over 560 people in every state and 46 countries around the world have pledged to put themselves under self-imposed “house arrest” and to host educational events in solidarity with Aung San Suu Kyi.
• On Moday, U.S. Campaign for Burma Executive Director Aung Din joined other prominent democracy advocates from Burma to personally deliver a petition of over 680,000 signatures calling for the release of all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, to Ibrahim Gambari, the UN Secretary-General’s special envoy to Buurma at UN headquarters in New York.
• We helped recruit 112 former Presidents and Prime Ministers from throughout the world  to urge the UN Secretary  General to travel to Burma to seek Suu Kyi’s release.  While he initially resisted, in early May he changed his mind and said he will go in the near future.
• We are currently campaigning for the renewal of the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act, which includes targeted sanctions on Burma’s ruthless leaders that Aung San Suu Kyi has called for. We hope you will join this effort and take a moment to call your Senators.
• Our work has been covered in thousands of news articles, helping to keep Burma on the agenda of world leaders

You can read more about what else we’ve done lately here and, at the bottom of this email you can read about some of the events taking place around the world to honor Aung San Suu Kyi.

Please help us to continue our vital work by making a contribution to our campaign today.

Sincerely,

Jeremy Woodrum
Director
U.S. Campaign for Burma

This morning Nobel Peace Prize Recipient Aung San Suu Kyi was moved from her Rangoon home to Burma’s notorious Insein Prison, where she will face trial on Monday for supposedly violating the terms of her house arrest by hosting an unauthorized visitor after an American man swam uninvited to her compound and refused to leave.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest continuously since 2003 and for a total of over 13 of the past 19 years.  According to the State Protection Law, under which she has been held, she can be detained for a maximum of six years.  This period was due to expire in less than two weeks, on May 27th, 2009.  Now, the military junta is using trumped up charges stemming from the incident of the American swimmer to extend her detention.  Suu Kyi was the victim, not the perpetrator, of this crime. For more information, please read USCB’s press release from earlier today.

The crime for which Aung San Suu Kyi is now being tried carries a minimum prison sentence of three years.  This is a critical time for the military regime in Burma, which has faced great difficulty in gaining support for its plan to host elections based on a sham constitution in 2010.  We must take action to ensure that the regime continues to feel pressure from the international community.

Take Action Now:

1.) Email UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and urge him to send his envoy to Burma and to take a stand for Aung San Suu Kyi’s security and freedom.  Click here to send an email to the Secretary General.

2.) Plan a Demonstration
Burma groups around the world have called for demonstrations in support of Aung San Suu Kyi to be held at Burmese embassies on Monday, May 18th.

US Campaign for Burma has organized a demonstration in Washington, DC at 12:30pm on Monday, May 18th, in front of the Burmese military attache (2300 California St. NW, near Dupont Circle). For more information contact Mike Haack at mike@uscampaignforburma.org.  If you are interested in organizing one in your home town, email Mike with the details and he will notify Burma supporters in your area.

3.) “Arrest Yourself” for Aung San Suu Kyi and Host a House Arrest Party to Educate Your Friends
Participate in Arrest Yourself 2009 and show your solidarity with Aung San Suu Kyi: uscampaignforburma.org/arrestyourself2009.

Learn More:

The world is giving more and more attention to Aung San Suu Kyi’s cause.  You can learn more about the regime’s detention of Aung San Suu Kyi on the news section of our website, or by reading these articles from CNN International, BBC, Al Jazeera, Agence France Presse, and Straight Times.

Thank you for taking action for Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma,

Jeremy Woodrum
Director
U.S. Campaign for Burma Support 1991 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi and the struggle for freedom and democracy in Burma:

Become a member of the U.S. Campaign for Burma.

Thank you both very much for sending a few words for our One Day for Human Rights, and for your support!

MITSI MCKEE – sh3n3rd World

I am part….mom, liberal, volunteer, nerd, friend, neighbor, dreamer, armchair philosopher, artist, and serial optimist.

I signed the petition because I think character means doing the right thing — even when no-one is watching.

If i could only impart only ONE thing to my sons throughout their lives it would that we are all humans, and as such….deserving of equal amounts of respect. No matter what!

Visit Mitsi's website @ http://sh3n3rd.blogspot.com/

Add Mitsi on Twitter @sh3n3rd

MATT HALTOM – Another Color Web

Visit Matt's website @ http://www.anothercolorweb.com

Add Matt on Twitter @matthaltom

I think it’s great to get to hear the reasoning behind these signatures…what makes people stand for human rights and support the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These are just 2 examples, but I will definitely ask more people. Maybe you can LEAVE A COMMENT with what motivated YOU to sign the petition!

___________________________
And now the third day stats real quick:

- 50 new signatures for the Petition to print the UDHR in passports, bringing the total number of signatures up to 614!

- 52 more followers on Twitter – total number of followers: 498 :) Thank you all for your interest and support!

- 29 more members (139 total) accepted our invitation to join the “One Day For Human Rights” Facebook Group, and a total of 132 confirmed that they will take action in promoting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10

- 3 more people (total of 17) accepted the invitation to join the “One Day for Human Rights” FLICKR Group. Please keep joining and show your creativity inspired by human rights issues! :)

Thanks for checking back with One Day for Human Rights! Please keep spreading the word and get people to sign the Petition! :)

Soon we will start having guest posts! That should be interesting! :) So please subscribe to our RSS feed and stay updated!

Love,
Anca

- 36 new signatures for the Petition to print the UDHR in passports, bringing the total number of signatures up to 520!

- 120 [aprox. :)] more followers on Twitter

- 76 members accepted our invitation to join the “One Day For Human Rights” Facebook Group, out of which 45 confirmed that they will take action in promoting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10

- only 7 people accepted the invitation to join the “One Day for Human Rights” FLICKR Group…but I am sure more will follow and show their creativity inspired by human rights issues! :)

The following awesome people deserve special mention, because they have especially contributed to promoting our cause today by posting one of our badges on their websites, or by writing a blog post about One Day for Human Rights:

BRIAN CARTER @briancarter	ROBERT BASIC @robertbasic	SIMON SEDLIAK @soul_star
DAMIEN BASILE @DamienBasile	ADELLE CHARLES @adellecharles	AARON IRIZARY @aaroni268

Also, thanks to Graham Smith from I’m Just Creative, for featuring One Day for Human Rights on SoulTweet, one of his many projects involving the online community

SOULTWEET
@soultweet

Thank you all of you who retweeted and promoted, and too all who contributed to making today such a great start for the campaign to promote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights! I am counting on your support for the next 2 weeks, and mostly on December 10, when we’ll all come together and create a huge online wave of human rights awareness!

Love,
Anca