End in sight of Suu Kyi trial

United Press International
End in sight of Suu Kyi trial
Published: July 13, 2009 at 9:36 AM

YANGON, Myanmar, July 13 (UPI) -- Final arguments in the trial of jailed Myanmar opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi will be heard on July 24.

Suu Kyi won the country's general election in May 1990 by a landslide, taking 392 of the 492 seats, with the next largest party taking 23 seats. But the military refused to recognize the results, and she has been detained on various charges for 13 of the past 19 years.

Suu Kyi, 64, has been under house arrest since May 2003 and is held on charges of threatening the national security of Myanmar, formerly called Burma. The current trial is over her alleged breaking of her house arrest when John William Yettaw, a U.S. citizen, swam across a lake and gained access to her property in May.

If convicted she faces up to five more years in jail. No date has been set for sentencing if Suu Kyi is found guilty.

Analysts believe the military would like to have her officially in jail during the first multiparty elections since 1990 that they have scheduled for next year. Although the junta's constitution prevents Suu Kyi from taking part, having her out of the way would avoid any embarrassing demonstrations at rallies of officially allowed parties.

The military has given itself 25 percent of seats in any new government decided by the elections.



At a special court set up inside Insein Prison in Yangon on Friday her lawyer, a member of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy Party, argued her arrest was unlawful because it was based on the old 1974 constitution, which was replaced by another in 2008.

Her last witness gave his testimony when the trial was restarted only for the day, a week after the country's military head Than Shwe refused to let U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, on an official visit to Myanmar, see her.

In his departure speech Ban said the regime should release Suu Kyi to show the international community that the military is serious about moving towards democracy.

Amnesty International Australia renewed its call for her release this past weekend. In a written statement the pressure group called on the U.N. Security Council and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to intervene to secure her release "without conditions."

Amnesty also said there are 2,100 political prisoners in Myanmar imprisoned in terrible conditions, including in the infamous Insein Prison where Suu Kyi is being held.

"Conditions in Burma's jails, including the notorious Insein Prison where Aung San Suu Kyi has been held for weeks, are appalling. The health of prisoners is put at risk by the circumstances in which they are forced to live and political prisoners are also at risk of torture and other ill-treatment, " said Jenny Leong, spokeswoman for Amnesty International Australia.

The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said in March that the detention of Suu Kyi violates both international law and Burma's domestic legislation, Amnesty said.
Irish rock band U2 is dedicating their song "Walk On" to Suu Kyi every night on their current tour, which kicked off in Barcelona June 30.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee gave Suu Kyi the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. The European Parliament awarded Suu Kyi the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought earlier that year. The Sakharov Prize is awarded around Dec. 10 every year, the day on which the U.N. General Assembly ratified the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

No date has been set for sentencing if Suu Kyi is found guilty.