Lawyer: Myanmar may rush democracy leader's trial

[May 19, 2009]  YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Myanmar's military regime appears to be rushing a trial of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, one of her lawyers said Tuesday on the second day of proceedings seen as a pretext for the government to keep the Nobel laureate jailed through elections next year.

Five prosecution witnesses gave testimony Tuesday in the case, which accuses Suu Kyi of violating her house arrest after an American man swam to and entered her lakeside home without her permission.

Suu Kyi, who has been in detention without trial for more than 13 or the past 19 years, had been scheduled to be freed May 27. The charges against her come as the ruling junta prepares for elections that it says are the culmination of a "roadmap to democracy," which has been criticized as a fig leaf for continued military control.

Her two companions and John W. Yettaw, 53, of Falcon, Missouri, are being tried with her. The offense is punishable by up to five years' imprisonment.

Hundreds of police in full riot gear, some armed with rifles, were deployed along all roads leading to Insein prison as the trial continued Tuesday morning. About 100 Suu Kyi supporters gathered peacefully near the prison.

The witnesses who testified Tuesday included the two police officers who were said to have fished Yettaw out of Yangon's Inya Lake after he swam away from Suu Kyi's residence, said Nyan Win, a spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party and one of four lawyers representing her at the trial.

Yettaw's family has described him as an as well-intentioned admirer of Suu Kyi who merely wanted to interview her, unaware of the problems his actions could trigger. Her supporters have expressed anger at him for getting her into trouble.

Because Yettaw is on trial, a U.S. consular official has been allowed to attend the hearing, which is otherwise closed to the press and public.

The prosecution has scheduled 22 witnesses for the trial, prompting Nyan Win to say earlier that the proceedings could last three months.

"Now it is very clear that they are trying to speed up the trial," he told reporters Tuesday at party headquarters. "If it goes on at this rate, it could even be over by next week."

Nyan Win said he did not know why authorities might be speeding up the trial, which few expect to go in Suu Kyi's favor. Courts in military-run Myanmar have rarely ruled in favor of Suu Kyi or any pro-democracy activists in numerous cases over the past two decades.

Last week's arrest of the Nobel Peace laureate reignited criticism of Myanmar's military junta and led to renewed calls by world leaders for her immediate release.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the charges against Suu Kyi were "unjustified" and called for her unconditional release and that of more than 2,100 other political prisoners.

Suu Kyi's arrest could well derail a "softer" approach that the Obama administration had been searching for to replace Washington's sanctions and other get-tough policies that did nothing to divert the ruling junta's iron-fisted rule.

Even Myanmar's partners in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, which rarely criticize one another, expressed "grave concern," saying "the honor and the credibility of the (Myanmar government) are at stake."

But China, Myanmar's closet ally, on Tuesday showed no signs it would exert pressure on the Myanmar government on the issue of Aung San Suu Kyi's trial.

"Myanmar's issue should be decided by the Myanmar people," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said at a regular news briefing. "We hope that the relevant parties in Myanmar could realize reconciliation, stability and development through dialogue."

[Associated Press]

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