Birthday greetings from the people of Bermuda were sent to Bishop Desmond Tutu in South Africa as the anti-apartheid opponent and Nobel Peace Prize winner celebrated his 75th birthday during the weekend.

Premier Alex Scott and UBP Opposition leader Wayne Furbert were amongst the Island dignitaries who put their names to the message to South Africa?s first black Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town who was a leading figure in the opposition to apartheid in the country and is generally recognised as coining the phrase ?Rainbow Nation? to describe post-apartheid South Africa.

Religious ministers from Bermuda, union leaders and others signed off the message, which read: ?Dear Archbishop Tutu. We join all the people around the world to wish you a happy 75th birthday and to join in your wish for a South Africa in which people embrace their freedom along with their personal and collective responsibility to build community. Best wishes, from Bermuda.?

The sending of the message was arranged by Glenn Fubler, who was co-ordinator of the Anti-Apartheid Movement in Bermuda during the 1980s and early 1990s.

One of Archbishop Tutu?s mentors, the late Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, was hosted in Bermuda during the late 1980s. Mr. Fubler said he had received assurance from Chris Ahrends, the executive director of the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre, that Archbishop Tutu would ?be pleased in having received such a message on behalf of such a remote island.?

Archbishop Tutu celebrated his 75th birthday on Saturday.