Suu Kyi supporters make solemn offerings on her birthday

Supporters of Myanmar's detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi made solemn offerings to Buddhist monks early Thursday as they marked her 63rd birthday, which she is spending under house arrest.
Dozens of people gathered outside the Yangon headquarters of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party, giving food to monks who were making their daily rounds to collect alms."Later, we will release nine doves to bring peace and freedom to Daw Suu Kyi," said Lai Lai, one of the party members. Aung San Suu Kyi has spent more than 12 years under house arrest in her rambling lakeside home, where she is allowed no contact with the outside world.However, a NLD source said she had gotten out a request for 30 of her supporters to visit the Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar's holiest shrine, to bring flowers and other offerings.Plainclothes security forces stood watch outside the NLD headquarters, taking photos and videos of everyone passing by. Several large police trucks rumbled past, but none stopped.While NLD supporters make offerings to monks on her birthday every year, the day had special significance coming after last year's anti-government marches led by the clergy-protests that were violently suppressed by the regime. At least 31 people were killed, 74 left missing, and hundreds imprisoned as security forces shot and beat protesters in the streets and raided monasteries during the night.Many monks spent months in hiding, but in the wake of deadly Cyclone Nargis-which left 133,000 people dead and 2.4 million in need of aid-the clergy have taken a prominent role in the relief effort.Survivors of the deadly storm, which ravaged Yangon and the nearby Irrawaddy delta nearly seven weeks ago, turned to monasteries for shelter.Monks took the lead in organising the distribution of locally-donated food and other supplies, while the junta left international aid workers tangled in bureaucratic red tape for weeks.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080619034140.5jrdtm9k&show_article=1&catnum=0

As in the days of Noah....