Global campaign marks Suu Kyi's 64th birthday

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi spent her 64th birthday locked in prison on Friday as global condemnation over her trial and demands for her freedom erupted across Twitter, Facebook and other websites and at rallies worldwide.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate planned to mark the day by sharing food with her prison guards.

"Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will celebrate her birthday by treating the people around her to rice and chocolate cake," said lawyer Nyan Win, who left several gifts at the prison including a chocolate cake, an apple cake, three bouquets of orchids and 50 lunch boxes of Indian-style biryani rice. "Daw" is a term of respect in Myanmar.

"She really appreciates the efforts and said she was sorry she wasn't able to thank everyone individually," he said, noting that lawyers have informed her of the worldwide campaign but did not personally see her Friday.

Hollywood stars like Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, celebrities Madonna and David Beckham, Nobel laureates and world leaders joined voices to call for the military government to release Suu Kyi. She has now spent 14 birthdays in detention.

Many posted online messages on social networking sites and videos on YouTube in what human rights groups called an unprecedented and enormously powerful tool to harness support for Suu Kyi and highlight her struggle.

"We must not stand by as she is silenced again. Now is the time for the international community to speak with one voice," says part of a 64-word message on a new website -- http://64forsuu.org -- signed by dozens of dignitaries and celebrities.

Among them were George Clooney, Sarah Jessica Parker, Robert De Niro, Nicole Kidman, director Steven Spielberg and fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureates Elie Wiesel and Desmond Tutu.

"Aung San Suu Kyi is an inspiration to her country and to the rest of the world," Paul McCartney said in his own message on the site, while Yoko Ono tweeted: "FREE Daw Aung San Suu Kyi NOW!"

The website is the online hub for a campaign -- "64 words for Aung San Suu Kyi" -- that was organized by a coalition of human rights groups including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Burma Campaign UK and Not On Our Watch, a charity founded by Clooney, Pitt and other actors.

The site is blocked in Myanmar, where the junta typically bans politically sensitive websites, but is being avidly read by Net-savvy citizens who use proxy Internet servers to get around censorship.

Rallies worldwide kicked off in Yangon, amid tight security. At a morning ceremony outside her party's headquarters, about 300 supporters released 64 sparrows and 10 doves into the sky with an array of colored balloons. They sang "Happy Birthday" and cut a cake in her honor.