According to v5_mizzima_com, photos: Naw Susanna Hla Hla Soe presented commemorative gifts to the Deputy Speaker of the Czech Parliament as a token of appreciation.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s 81st birthday on 19 June was celebrated in an event at the Czech Parliament.
The following is a statement by Barbora Urbanová, Deputy Speaker of the Czech Chamber of Deputies, on the occasion of the birthday of the incarcerated Myanmar leader:
Today, we remember the birthday of a brave and unbreakable woman. Thousands of kilometres separate us, and we have never met. Yet her story has reached all the way here, to the Czech Republic.
I am speaking about Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Burma’s democratic opposition. Since 2021, her country has once again been under military rule — a regime that openly murders women and children, attacks civilians from the air, and burns their homes.
Aung San Suu Kyi is the daughter of Burma’s founding father. Forty years ago, after many years abroad, she returned to her country to care for her ageing mother. At that same time, another military regime was oppressing the people of Burma. She decided to stand at the head of the democratic opposition.
She won several elections, yet was rarely allowed to govern. For much of these past forty years, she has patiently endured imprisonment and the cruelty of successive military regimes in Burma.
It was Václav Havel who helped bring her story to wider attention. That is one reason why the Czech Republic is so well known in Burma.
That is also why today, in the Dagmar Burešová Hall, named after another remarkable woman in Czech political life, we gathered to celebrate Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday. She is turning 81. But we do not know where she is, nor do we know the state of her health.
It was an honour for me, now in my new role as Deputy Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, to hear not only the story of Aung San Suu Kyi, but also the stories of two former members of the Burmese parliament who were present with us — women whose parliament was dissolved by the military.
I deeply admire their love for their country and the patience with which they continue working for the future of their state after the military regime falls. And that it will one day fall is certain.
Let us hope that by this time next year, this birthday will be celebrated in a fully free Burma — and together with Aung San Suu Kyi.
So today, we say: Happy Birthday.
Photos: Naw Susanna Hla Hla Soe presented commemorative gifts to the Deputy Speaker of the Czech Parliament as a token of appreciation.