Suu Kyi likely to be imprisoned again

AAP

http://au.news.yahoo.com

June 1, 2009

Burma's military junta has accused Aung San Suu Kyi of covering up a visit to her home by a US man which led to her trial, as the pro-democracy icon hit back against the "bullying" generals.

The regime said on Sunday that the Nobel laureate is not above the law, and issued its sternest warning yet against foreign interference in the case, under which she faces up to five years' jail for breaching her house arrest.

Aung San Suu Kyi has proclaimed her innocence at the closed prison trial, insisting that she only offered "temporary shelter" to American John Yettaw after he swam to her lakeside house, and has branded the proceedings as biased.

"It is no doubt that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has committed a cover up of the truth by her failure to report an illegal immigrant to the authorities concerned," Major General Aye Myint, Burma's deputy defence minister, told a security forum in Singapore.

"Thus there was no option but to open legal proceedings in accordance with the law," Aye Myint said. "She permitted him to stay ... She communicated, provided him food and shelter."

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 13 of the last 19 years in detention, mostly at her crumbling lakeside mansion. She was moved to Rangoon's notorious Insein prison and charged on May 14.

The 63-year-old opposition leader met her lawyers at the jail on Saturday ahead of final arguments in the case, which are due to be heard on Friday. A guilty verdict is widely expected.

Her party said on Sunday that she's upset that Burmese authorities entered her residential compound without permission to stage a reconstruction of Yettaw's visit for the purposes of the trial.

"Aung San Suu Kyi said she is not completely satisfied as Mr Yettaw and the authorities went into her compound last week for a demonstration (of how he got into the property)," party spokesman Nyan Win told AFP.

"It was not in accordance with the law. She said it was unjust bullying," added Nyan Win, who is also part of her legal team.

Yettaw, a 53-year-old Mormon and former US military veteran, was arrested on May 6 after swimming to Aung San Suu Kyi's house using a pair of homemade flippers, and spending two nights there.

He has told the court he had a vision that Aung San Suu Kyi would be assassinated by "terrorists" and was told by God to warn both the opposition leader and the Burmese government.

Aung San Suu Kyi said in a statement to the court last week that she could not be held responsible as the junta had failed to boost security despite her having reported that Yettaw made a previous visit to the house in November 2008.

However, Nyan Win quoted the democracy campaigner as saying that she "has no grudge to Mr Yettaw and his family".

International critics accuse Burma's military regime of trumping up the charges in a bid to keep her locked up ahead of elections in 2010, as the latest six-year period of her house arrest expired on Wednesday.

But in his speech in Singapore, Burma's Aye Myint said the case against Aung San Suu Kyi is an internal matter.

"Countries should refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of Myanmar (Burma) that will affect peace and security of the region," said Aye Myint.

"It is the universal legal principle that no one is above the law," he said.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, speaking at the same forum on Saturday, pressed Burma to free Aung San Suu Kyi and said there needs to be "real change in Burma".

Ann Taylor, Britain's minister for international defence and security, made a similar call on Sunday.

Burma last week hit back at rare criticism from the normally placid fellow members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) over the treatment of the democracy campaigner.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, whose country holds the rotating chairmanship of the 10-member bloc, said ASEAN leaders will discuss Burma at a summit in South Korea on June 1-2.

Meanwhile, more than 100 people rallied in Singapore late on Sunday as part of a regional effort by civil rights groups to press Burma's military rulers to release Aung San Suu Kyi.

Similar rallies were also held simultaneously in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Cambodia and Thailand, organisers said.