AUNG SAN Suu Kyi, the Burmese opposition leader, told a court yesterday she had no prior knowledge of an American man’s plan to visit her home in Rangoon and had not broken the terms of her house arrest.
She faces up to five years in prison for allowing John Yettaw to spend two days at her lakeside compound earlier this month. She has already spent 13 of the last 19 years in detention.
“I didn’t know about [the visit] immediately. I was informed about it at 5am. My assistant told me that a man had arrived,” she told the court, according to reports.
Asked whether she reported his visit immediately to authorities, she answered: “No, I did not.” Suu Kyi said she gave Yettaw “temporary shelter” and that he left just before midnight on the same day.
A small number of diplomats and Burmese journalists were allowed into the court yesterday to see proceedings on the seventh day of the trial, most of which has been conducted behind closed doors. “Thank you for your concern and support. It is always good to see people from the outside world,” Suu Kyi said as she was escorted out of the court by four policewomen following testimony that lasted just 25 minutes.
Mark Canning, the British ambassador to Burma, said Suu Kyi looked “composed and confident”, and had suggested that some of the questions directed at her should instead be asked of Yettaw, seated just a few metres away.
Although few expect Suu Kyi to be acquitted, Mr Canning said continued pressure could force the court to consider a lighter sentence.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that this will end in a guilty verdict, but they may trim their custodial ambitions and give her another year under house arrest rather than five years in prison.
“That way they can keep her out of the way during the elections next year. That is what this is all about.”
Suu Kyi’s denials came as the country’s military junta claimed it had considered releasing her from house arrest, but had changed its mind after she provided food and clothing for Yettaw.
“These things infringed on existing law and we unavoidably and regretfully had to take legal action against her,” Brig Gen Myint Thein told reporters. Suu Kyi had been scheduled to be freed tomorrow after six consecutive years under house arrest.
Mr Yettaw (53), said he swam across a lake to Suu Kyi’s residence using homemade flippers on May 4th, apparently to tell her of his premonition that she was about to be assassinated. Her lawyers say she asked Yettaw to leave immediately and only allowed him to stay when he complained of feeling unwell and being too tired to swim back.
Brig Gen Thein said the junta had been prepared to free her from house arrest on humanitarian grounds and because she is the daughter of Burma’s founder, Aung San.
Defence lawyers complained they had been given little time to prepare after prosecutors suddenly decided not to call their last eight witnesses, a move that reinforced fears the trial is being rushed to conclusion, perhaps as early as this week.
Four witnesses are expected to testify in Suu Kyi’s defence, including Win Tin, Burma’s longest-serving political prisoner who was released last year, and Tin Oo, the vice-chairman of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), who has been under house arrest since 2003.
The NLD won elections in 1990 but the military, which has ruled the country since 1962, ignored the results and placed Suu Kyi in detention.
A global campaign for the release of Burma's political prisoners has secured more than 600,000 petition signatures in more than 150 countries, Dr Naing Aung, secretary-general of the Forum for Democracy in Burma, said yesterday. The petition calls on the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon to make it his personal priority to secure the release of all political prisoners in Burma as the essential first step towards democratisation in the country. – ( Guardiannews service)