Suu Kyi gets an Obama touch.

June 25, 2009
Suu Kyi gets an Obama touch

WASHINGTON - THE artist behind the iconic image of Barack Obama above the word 'HOPE' is now trying to do the same for Myanmar's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been put on trial by the junta.

Los Angeles artist Shepard Fairey depicted a beaming Ms Suu Kyi with a dove above her heart on top of red rays of light. The phrase 'FREEDOM TO LEAD' appears above.

'I created this portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi to raise awareness of her ongoing house arrest and the oppressive nature of the military regime ruling Burma,' Fairey said, using Myanmar's earlier name.

Ms Suu Kyi has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention and is now being held in Yangon's notorious Insein Prison during her trial for a bizarre incident in which an American man swam to her home.

The Nobel Peace laureate faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

Prominent US human rights activist Jack Healey said he approached Fairey about making a portrait after seeing his role firing up young people to support Mr Obama's presidential campaign last year. 'I thought he could create an iconic image and do internationally for her what he did nationally for the campaign,' said Mr Healey, head of the Human Rights Action Centre.

'I'm interested in getting that youthful reaction. Few people know where Burma is, they don't know her name - at best they say 'that lady,'' he said. Mr Healey said he was fulfilling a promise to help Ms Suu Kyi when he met her in 1999.

'She is the living symbol in my mind of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. If she takes power, immediately torture disappears, 70,000 child soldiers disappear, the drug trade gets knocked off its feet for a while,' he said.

The inspirational portrait contrasts with some photographs of Aung San Suu Kyi to trickle out in recent years. The 64-year-old opposition leader has appeared sullen and frail in some meetings with UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari, who is returning to Myanmar this week.

Fairey created a poster of Mr Obama tinted in red, white and blue, with the future president staring into the sky above the word 'HOPE.' Fairey has since been engaged in a legal battle with the Associated Press news agency as he based his portrait on one of its photographs of Mr Obama. -- AFP -Straits Times.
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