RANGOON — Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi thanked supporters around the world who sent her greetings for her 64th birthday last week while she remained in prison.
A spokesman for her political party, Nyan Win, said Monday the Nobel Peace laureate regretted she could not thank everyone individually. He said the well-wishers whose messages he delivered to her included British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the Japanese and Australian governments, France's foreign minister, and a US senator.
Suu Kyi is being held in Rangoon's Insein Prison while being tried for violating the terms of her house arrest when an uninvited American man swam secretly to her closely guarded lakeside home last month and stayed two days. If convicted, she faces up to five years in prison.
Lawyers met Suu Kyi and two of her companions at the prison Monday for two hours, Nyan Win said, and made preparations for their closing arguments, for which no date has yet been set.
Nyan Win said he delivered 50 packets of Indian-style Biriyani rice, chocolate cake and three bouquets of flowers to the prison for Suu Kyi's birthday last Friday but was not allowed to see her.
"She is very well," he said. "A doctor takes care of her health." Suu Kyi had been suffering from dehydration and low blood pressure just before being charged last month.
She treated her guards and the prison doctor to some of the food, he said.
Suu Kyi's trial has drawn outrage from the international community and local supporters who say the military government is using the affair as an excuse to keep her detained through elections scheduled for next year.
She has spent more than 13 of the past 19 years in detention without trial, mostly under house arrest.
irrawaddy
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