Activists tap celebrity power for Myanmar's Suu Kyi

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hollywood actors including WillFerrell and Sylvester Stallone have joined a monthlong videocampaign to win support for jailed Myanmar democracy leaderAung San Suu Kyi.

Comedy film star Ferrell's appearance in a brief onlinevideo on Thursday will be the first of 30 daily Web video spotsdesigned to raise the profile of Suu Kyi, the world's onlyimprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

The videos depart from the standard humanitarian appealformula with offbeat and ironic skits to draw the attention tothe plight of Suu Kyi and the people of the Southeast Asiancountry, formerly called Burma.

Ferrell's video pokes fun at his difficulty pronouncing SuuKyi's name, while a skit by Academy Award-nominated "Juno"actress Ellen Page draws a Hitler moustache on a portrait ofreclusive Myanmar military junta leader Than Shwe.

"What we're hoping is that on the 31st day, the UnitedStates will know Aung San Suu Kyi, they'll know the dictator,and they'll know what's going on over there," said Jack Healey,founder of the Human Rights Action Center and former directorof Amnesty International USA.

"We're hoping we'll have literally a million supporters forthe U.S. Campaign for Burma that gives Aung San Suu Kyi aconstituency she's never had before but one she deserves,"Healey told Reuters.

The Washington-based U.S. Campaign for Burma will run theWeb video series on the sites www.burmaitcantwait.org and onthe social shopping site www.fanista.com.

"The global campaign for Burma has been small and we wantto make that much bigger," said Jeremy Woodrum, co-founder ofthe U.S. Campaign for Burma.

Oxford-educated Suu Kyi, 62, has been under house arrest orin prison for more than 12 of the last 18 years. She has beenin detention since May 2003.

Her National League for Democracy party won a crushingelection victory in 1990, with more than 80 percent of theseats, only to see the junta ignore the result and refuse tocede any power.

Woodrum said Myanmar's widespread abuses include havingrecruited more than 70,000 child soldiers and destroying 3,200ethnic minority villages -- twice as many hamlets as have beendestroyed in the violent Darfur region of Sudan.

The 30-day Web video campaign will overlap with the May 27date when the military will announce whether to release Suu Kyior extend her detention another year. Few expect she will bereleased.

Also appearing in the videos will be Woody Harrelson,Anjelica Huston, Jennifer Aniston, Jason Biggs, SarahSilverman, Eva Longoria, Forest Whitaker, Steven Seagal, EricSzmanda and 20 other artists and entertainers, Woodrum said.

(Reporting by Paul Eckert; Editing by Eric Beech)