Aung San Suu Kyi's Birthday at Toda

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Subject: Aung San Suu Kyi's Birthday at Todaiji

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Burmese Relief Center--Japan
DATE:June 20, 1995
TIME: 8:12PM JST

Mainichi Newspaper
Nara, Japan
Saturday, June 17, 1995

Praying for Democracy and the Release of Suu Kyi
A call for solidarity in support of the opposition leader under
house arrest in Myanmar

Todaiji and other temples and churches throughout the country
are holding services on June 17 and 18 praying for democracy
in Myanmar (formerly Burma) and for the release of Aung San
Suu Kyi, the opposition leader who is under house arrest in
Myanmar.  A volunteer group, Burmese Relief Center--Japan,
directed by Ken Kawasaki and his wife Visakha, who are
junior high school teachers living in Kashihara, has been
sending computer messages all over Japan regarding Suu Kyi's
birthday, June 19.

In 1988 there were huge demonstrations in Myanmar calling
for democracy, but these were suppressed by a coup d'etat in
September.  Aung San Suu Kyi continued opposing the
government and calling for the protection of human rights of
those who had been arrested.  Aung San Suu Kyi herself was
placed under house arrest in July 1989.  In 1991 she was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, but this did end her house
arrest.

The Kawasakis are both Buddhists from the United States.  In
the eighties they served as relief workers in Indochinese
refugee camps.  In 1988 they became involved with activities
opposing the government of Myanmar, and in 1990 they
founded the Burmese Relief Center--Japan.  The Center carries
out various campaigns directed toward the release of Aung San
Suu Kyi and democracy in Myanmar, including letters and
petitions to the Japanese government.  Having learned about
various demonstrations and prayer sessions planned for the
weekend of June 17 and 18 in Washington and other places
around the world,  they sent out by computer network a
"prayer request" including Suu Kyi's own words,  "Even the
smallest light cannot be extinguished by all the darkness in the
world . . ."

On June 18  the Kawasakis are sponsoring a ceremony in
Nara.  In the ceremony, attended by a Myanmar monk living
in Japan, sutras will be chanted and 50 Japanese carp will be
released into Kagami Pond in the compound of Todaiji
Temple.  The couple is hoping that many people will join the
ceremony.  "Everyone will be free to pray in his own way,"
they said.