South Africa had released statements calling for Burmese dissident and Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's release from house arrest in 2009. But in 2007, when South Africa took up a seat on the U.N. Security Council, its first significant vote was joining China and Russia in opposing a U.S.-sponsored resolution to reprimand Burma for its poor human rights record and calling on the military junta to release political prisoners. Tutu, pictured above at his 75th birthday celebration in Johannesburg in 2006, condemned the vote. "It's a betrayal of our noble past," he said. "It is inexplicable."

FATI MOALUSI/AFP/Getty Images

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