Global protests will be staged this week, thousands of birthday cards have been sent and a pop star will release a song to draw attention to the plight of Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi as she marks her 60th birthday and 2,523rd day under military detention on Sunday.
Isolated from the outside world and her decimated political party, Suu Kyi is confined to a now dilapidated, two-story family house sealed off around the clock by security forces in the Myanmar capital of Yangon.
The Free Aung San Suu Kyi campaign signifies that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate -- articulate, attractive and unquestionably brave -- remains the great hope for those around the world seeking to end more than four decades of harsh military rule in her homeland.
But within Myanmar the efforts before Suu Kyi's birthday are unlikely to lead either to her release from house arrest or less autocratic rule. The generals have long proved virtually impervious to outside pressure, even economic sanctions from the US.
"We are trying to use the opportunity of Suu Kyi's 60th birthday to galvanize public opinion and politicians into finally taking some action on Burma. The international response has been quite pathetic since her latest arrest," says Mark Farmaner, spokesman for Burma Campaign, UK.
Little more than statements of concern followed Suu Kyi's last detention in May 2003 after a pro-government mob savagely attacked her car convoy in northern Myanmar, killing a number of her companions.
This muted response, especially from Asian nations and the EU, has led to a deterioration of conditions in Myanmar and greater isolation of Suu Kyi than during her previous periods under house arrest, Farmaner argues.
According to sources close to the pro-democracy movement in Yangon, Suu Kyi's only human contacts with the outside world are her two personal doctors whose visits have been curtailed since last year. Two members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) do the shopping but must deliver thoroughly searched packages at the gate of her unkempt compound, the garden of which resembles a jungle.
Suu Kyi dismissed the 13 youths from the NLD who provided security in mid-December as protest against the military's demand that she reduce her security contingent. And the military liaison officer with whom she had contact since her first detention in 1989 was jailed last year in a power struggle and hasn't been replaced.
Her only companions are a woman in her mid-60s who does the cooking and the woman's daughter. Suu Kyi is able to listen to the radio, read government newspapers and watch state-run television but doesn't have a satellite dish to receive international channels.
Suu Kyi is believed to be healthy and has not been physically harmed by her captors.
"It's international attention and public profile which has kept Aung San Suu Kyi safe," says Farmaner, whose group is orchestrating the campaign for her release in the UK.
The global effort is modeled after the 1988 "Mandela at 70" campaign to free Nelson Mandela from imprisonment in then apartheid-era South Africa. Protests at Myanmar embassies around the world are scheduled for today and activists are to deliver 6,000 birthday cards at Yangon's mission in Washington.
Supporters will be putting themselves under symbolic 24-hour house arrest and honors -- from keys to cities to honorary degrees -- are being bestowed. On her birthday on Sunday, Irish musician Damien Rice will release Unplayed Piano, a song about one of Suu Kyi's few pleasures under detention until her piano broke down.
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