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YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — For the first time in nearly a decade, Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi celebrated her birthday in freedom on Sunday, with supporters freeing symbolic caged birds as more than 50 state security agents watched from across the street.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate turned 66, and received one gift at Yangon's international airport: the arrival of her youngest son, Kim Aris, who lives in Britain and kissed his mother on arrival.
"If I were asked what I would wish on my birthday, I wish for peace, stability and prosperity in the country," Suu Kyi said in a brief address to supporters at her opposition party's headquarters in Yangon.
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Suu Kyi has celebrated 15 birthdays in detention or house arrest over the past 22 years, and this was the first in nine years that she was able to mark freely with friends, family and supporters.
Ruled by the military since 1962, Myanmar held its first elections in 20 years in November. Suu Kyi was released from seven years of house arrest just days after the poll, which her party boycotted. The junta handed power to a civilian government in March, but critics say it's merely a front for continued army rule.
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