Burma's other prisoners still a concern

Editorial reflecting the views of the US Government (VOA, 8/21/09)

John Yettaw is helped off plane at a Bangkok airport/Aung San Suu Kyi (AP/VOA).

Burmese authorities have freed John Yettaw, who was convicted and sentenced following his uninvited visit to pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s house. In charges stemming from that incident, Ms. Suu Kyi was given an additional 18-month sentence, extending a detention that has lasted for much of the last 19 years.

While the United States welcomes Mr. Yettaw’s release, it remains very concerned about the continued detention of Ms. Suu Kyi and more than 2,100 other political prisoners, including Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, and Su Su Nwe, who have been denied their liberty because of their pursuit of a government that respects the will, rights, and aspirations of all Burmese citizens. While traveling in Burma in early May, Mr. Yettaw swam across a lake near Ms. Suu Kyi's home, driven he said by a vision that terrorists were bent on killing her. More>>

Senator frees American in Burma

Senator wins release of US prisoner in Burma

U.S. Sen. Jim Webb meeting with Burma's detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon on Aug. 15, 2009 (AP/Office of Sen. Webb).

NYAYPIDAW, Burma - U.S. Senator Jim Webb (D - Va.) traveled to Burma. He met with its dictator (Gen. Than Shwe) and has succeeded in winning the release Saturday of American prisoner John Yettaw. Yettaw was convict-ed in Burma and sentenced to seven years in prison with hard labor for illegally swim-ming to the residence of de-tained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the senator's office said. More>>

PHOTOS: U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, a Virginia Democrat, and his wife, Hong Le Webb, pose for photo at the world-famous Shwedagon Pagoda, which houses the Buddha's relics on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2009, in Rangoon, Burma (AP/Khin Maung Win). Monks and citizens during the Saffron Revolution peacefully petitioning for the Lady's safe release (Reuters).

Suu Kyi still a potent force for change

BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is back where the ruling generals [and their leader, Senior General Than Shwe, whose stepfather is Chinese] want her: inside a crumbling mansion, lonely and isolated from the world.

But a fleeting emergence into public view showed that Suu Kyi's steely grace and charisma, along with her popularity, are intact. She remains a potentially potent force for change in a country that has seen virtually no deviation from harsh military rule for nearly half a century.

For now, the 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate, arguably the world's most famous prisoner, will likely return to her daily meditation, listening to radio news broadcasts and waiting for the occasional censored mail, including letters from two sons she last saw a decade ago.

What continues to keep Suu Kyi tenacious and focused on bringing democracy to Burma are her deep Buddhist faith, rigorous self-discipline and the guiding influence of her parents, those close to her say. The only apparent chink in her armor is a fondness for dark chocolate.

Although set within the teeming city of Yangon, her police-ringed home might just as well be on another continent, removed from a downtrodden populace and a junta that extended her 14-year detention for another 18 months on Tuesday. More>>

Burma: Suu Kyi convicted, house arrest

VIDEO

RANGOON, Burma (AP) – A Myanmar court found democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi guilty Tuesday of violating her house arrest by allowing an uninvited American to stay at her home. The head of the military-ruled country ordered her to serve out an 18-month sentence under house arrest.

• Slideshow: Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi
• Suu Kyi trial was to resume, verdict due

The American, John Yettaw, was sentenced to seven years in prison, including four with hard labor. Suu Kyi has already been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years, mostly under house arrest, and the extension will remove her from the political scene while the country holds junta-organized elections next year.

The 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate had faced up to five years in prison for allowing Yettaw to stay for two nights after he swam across a lake to reach her. The court initially sentenced Suu Kyi to a three-year prison term. But after a five-minute recess, the country's home minister entered the courtroom and read aloud a special order from junta chief Senior Gen. Than Shwe.

The order said Than Shwe was cutting the sentence in half to 18 months and that it could be served under house arrest. Than Shwe's order, signed Monday, likewise reduced the sentences of Suu Kyi's two female house companions to 18 months. Than Shwe said he reduced the sentence to "maintain peace and tranquility" and because Suu Kyi was the daughter of Aung San, a revered hero who won Myanmar's independence from Britain.

Suu Kyi's trial has sparked international outrage and calls for her release and that of Myanmar's more than 2,000 other political prisoners. The 53-year-old Yettaw, of Falcon, Missouri, was returned to Insein prison, the site of the trial, on Monday night after hospitalization for epileptic seizures. The court sentenced him to three years in prison for breaching Suu Kyi's house arrest. Yettaw was also sentenced to three years in prison with hard labor for an immigration violation and to another one-year term with hard labor for swimming in a restricted zone.

It was not immediately clear if the prison terms would be served concurrently.

Yettaw, a devout Christian, earlier told his lawyer that he swam to Suu Kyi's residence to warn her of an assassination attempt that he had seen in a vision. Yettaw was hospitalized last Monday after suffering seizures. He reportedly suffers from epilepsy, diabetes and other health problems, including post traumatic stress disorder from his service in the U.S. military. Source

American says "God" told him to warn Suu Kyi

Hla Hla Htay

Burmese citizens living in Japan hold portraits of pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi during a rally in Tokyo (AFP/Kazuhiro Nogi).

YANGON (AFP) – A US man told the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi Wednesday that he swam to the Burmese democracy icon's home to warn her of a divine vision about a "terrorist" plot to assassinate her, her party said.

John Yettaw took the stand for the first time in the case against the Nobel Laureate, who faces up to five years in jail on charges of breaching her house arrest, stemming from the American's bizarre visit this month.

• Slideshow: Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi

The 53-year-old said he came to Burma from his home in Missouri because he had a dream that terrorists would try to pin the blame for killing her on the military regime, Aung San Suu Kyi's party spokesman Nyan Win told reporters.

"Yettaw said he came here because God asked him to," said Nyan Win, who is also on her legal team and was in court Wednesday for the closed hearing at the notorious Insein Prison in Yangon.

"He said the reason he came was in his vision he saw that Aung San Suu Kyi was assassinated by terrorists. Because of his vision, he came here to warn Aung San Suu Kyi and also the government," Nyan Win said.

"In his vision, the terrorists assassinated Aung San Suu Kyi and then they put the blame for the assassination on the government, so that's why he came here to warn both of them," he said.

Nyan Win said judges questioned Yettaw for three hours, during which the devout Mormon and former US army veteran repeatedly said he had divine inspiration for his night-time swim on May 4. More>>

Darwin's descendent in Oxford dispute

Great-great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin, Ruth Padel, is Oxford's first female Professor of Poetry since the post was created 300 years ago. She spoke at a press conference in Wales on 5/26/09, where she explained her resignation, acknowledging she publicized charges her rival for the post sexually harassed a former student (AP/Ben Birchall/PA Wire).

LONDON — A fight over who gets to be Oxford University's top poet has set Britain's pens racing — and weakened the careers of two well-known wordsmiths. More>>

Burma: The American

U.S. citizen John Wm. Yettaw in Yangon (Reuters/Myanma News Agency/handout).

Aung Hla Tun Aung Hla Tun (5/22/09)
YANGON (Reuters) – Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi pleaded not guilty on Friday after a prison court formally charged the Nobel laureate for allowing an univited American intruder inside her home.

The court's decision to proceed with the trial of Suu Kyi, her two female housemates, and the U.S. man after five days of hearings had been widely expected, analysts said.

Suu Kyi faces up to five years in jail if found guilty of breaking the terms of her house arrest by allowing the American, John William Yettaw [photo inset], to stay in her home for two days in early May, 2009.

"Are you guilty?" the presiding judge, U Thaung Nyunt, asked as Suu Kyi faced the court inside Yangon's Insein prison.

"No, because I did not commit any crime," she calmly replied, according to her lawyer Nyan Win.

He said the trial could take two weeks and he was confident of an acquittal "if everything goes according to the law."

Myanmar watchers say that is a big "if" in the former Burma, where the military holds sway over a legal system that has put more than 2,000 political prisoners behind bars. More>>

• Books, letter to be used in case against Suu Kyi (AP)
• Lawyer: Myanmar court accepts case against Suu Kyi (AP)
• Suu Kyi proclaims innocence in Myanmar court (AFP)

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).

Trial for Aung San over American intruder

PLAY VIDEO – Suu Kyi charged over US intruder (AFP), American John Wm. Yeattaw

(AP/AFP) YANGON, Burma – Myanmar's Nobel Prize-winning pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi [pronounced "Ong-Song Sue-Chi"] faced new charges today less than two weeks before her house arrest was due to end after an American man swam across a lake and entered her home, her lawyer said.

Supporters accused the military government of using the incident to keep her in detention ahead of general elections scheduled next year.

• Slideshow: Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi

Suu Kyi, whose detention was set to end May 27, could face a prison term of up to five years if convicted, said lawyer Hla Myo Myint. The trial is scheduled to start Monday at a special court at Yangon's notorious Insein Prison, where she was arraigned Thursday.

She is accused of breaking the terms of her detention by harboring the visitor for two days, even though another of Suu Kyi's lawyers said she told the man to leave her home.

"Everyone is very angry with this wretched American [John William Yeattaw, 53]. He is the cause of all these problems," lawyer Kyi Win told reporters. "He's a fool." [Of course, Yeattaw is just an excuse being used by the military junta, who are using him as a pretext for extending Suu Kyi's detention after the maximum length of an untenable house arrest was exhausted]. More>>

• John William Yeattaw -- American intruder and Junta pretext
• Obama wants indefinite detention without trial at Gitmo