Thursday, May 21, 2009

Burma: American in the Spotlight

Burmese Buddhist monks pray during a demonstration in front of the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok, Thailand. An American who swam to Aung San Suu Kyi's house said that she seemed "scared" of him, her trial heard as the junta again barred media and diplomats from the court (AFP/Pornchai Kittiwongsakul).

YANGON, Burma – A middle-aged American man whose nighttime swim to visit democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi may [be used as a pretext to] cost her a chance at freedom. He came into fuzzy focus today, as a court in Burma showed a home movie he allegedly shot at her lakeside residence.

However, few outsiders were able to view the unique video because the court again closed the proceedings, barring reporters and diplomats after allowing them to attend a single session on Wednesday.

The May 3 visit of John W. Yettaw, of Falcon, Missouri, who was not invited to Suu Kyi's lakeside compound, has ensnared her in a legal mess that could sink her chances of ending six years of continuous detention without trial. She has spent more than 13 of the past 19 years locked up because of her opposition to the country's military government.

Suu Kyi, two female members of her party who live with her under house arrest, and the 53-year-old Yettaw are being tried together for violating the conditions of her detention order, which bans visitors without official permission. The offense is punishable by up to five years' imprisonment.

Suu Kyi had been scheduled to be freed May 27, after which the law does not appear to allow her to be held.

The charges against her are widely seen as a pretext for the government to keep her detained through polls it has scheduled for next year as the culmination of a "roadmap to democracy," which has been criticized as a fig leaf for continued military rule. More>>

Burmese Buddhist nuns pause near the head office of detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy in Yangon today (5/21/09). Burma's military junta closed the trial of Suu Kyi to reporters and diplomats again today, sparking complaints that the regime was trying to hide the widely criticized proceedings from the world(AP/Khin Maung Win).

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