Burmese police have entered the compound of detained opposition leader and Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, known lovingly to the Burmese people simply as "The Lady," the BBC is reporting.
It comes a day after a man carrying a US passport was found by security forces swimming away from the property across Inya Lake -- surrounding the compound in which she has been held under house arrest by the Junta (pictured below) for more than 19 years after being democratically elected as head of the country. She is scheduled to be released in May, unless the Junta finds a pretext to continue her arrest.
The man was reported to have swum over to the house two days before (on Sunday evening), but no motive has been given for the visit.
Ms. Suu Kyi has been kept under house arrest by Burma's military rulers for most of the past 19 years.
It follows reports in the state newspaper the New Light of Myanmar that an American, identified as John William Yeattaw, had "secretly entered the house and stayed there."
The paper said he was arrested late on Tuesday (May 5, 2009) while swimming back across the lake, apparently using a five liter water bottle as a buoyancy aid.
An American passport, a backpack, a pair of pliers, a camera, and US dollars were confiscated from him, the state newspaper reported.
Security concerns
Such an incident would be the first time someone has broken into Ms. Suu Kyi's compound. The area is tightly-guarded and swimming in Inya Lake is prohibited. A spokesman for the US embassy in Rangoon said they had not been informed of the arrest and knew nothing about it.
But a spokesman for Ms. Suu Kyi National League for Democracy (NLD) party said the incident showed the security weaknesses at the compound. "We are worried for Daw Suu Kyi's security," Nyan Win told the AFP news agency.
Ms. Suu Kyi has been under almost permanent house arrest since the NLD won a general election in 1990. The junta has refused to allow the party to assume power.
Her latest period of detention is due to expire at the end of May, but the authorities have not yet said if it will be extended.
The face of the dictatorship: SLORC, the Junta, military rulers who seized and maintain rule by force while plundering the nation, enslaving rural workers, causing environmental degradation, jailing dissidents, shutting off Internet access, and being next to last place on many indices of comparative health and education
It comes a day after a man carrying a US passport was found by security forces swimming away from the property across Inya Lake -- surrounding the compound in which she has been held under house arrest by the Junta (pictured below) for more than 19 years after being democratically elected as head of the country. She is scheduled to be released in May, unless the Junta finds a pretext to continue her arrest.
The man was reported to have swum over to the house two days before (on Sunday evening), but no motive has been given for the visit.
Ms. Suu Kyi has been kept under house arrest by Burma's military rulers for most of the past 19 years.
It follows reports in the state newspaper the New Light of Myanmar that an American, identified as John William Yeattaw, had "secretly entered the house and stayed there."
The paper said he was arrested late on Tuesday (May 5, 2009) while swimming back across the lake, apparently using a five liter water bottle as a buoyancy aid.
An American passport, a backpack, a pair of pliers, a camera, and US dollars were confiscated from him, the state newspaper reported.
Pro-democracy demonstrations in Rangoon
House and lake around Ms. Suu Kyi's house
Security concerns
Such an incident would be the first time someone has broken into Ms. Suu Kyi's compound. The area is tightly-guarded and swimming in Inya Lake is prohibited. A spokesman for the US embassy in Rangoon said they had not been informed of the arrest and knew nothing about it.
But a spokesman for Ms. Suu Kyi National League for Democracy (NLD) party said the incident showed the security weaknesses at the compound. "We are worried for Daw Suu Kyi's security," Nyan Win told the AFP news agency.
Ms. Suu Kyi has been under almost permanent house arrest since the NLD won a general election in 1990. The junta has refused to allow the party to assume power.
Her latest period of detention is due to expire at the end of May, but the authorities have not yet said if it will be extended.
The face of the dictatorship: SLORC, the Junta, military rulers who seized and maintain rule by force while plundering the nation, enslaving rural workers, causing environmental degradation, jailing dissidents, shutting off Internet access, and being next to last place on many indices of comparative health and education
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