US man heads home after release from Myanmar jail

[August 19, 2009]  BANGKOK (AP) -- American John Yettaw boarded a flight home Wednesday, ending an infamous journey that started three months ago with a secret swim to the home of Myanmar's detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi that landed them both in prison.

Yettaw, 53, of Falcon, Missouri, was sentenced last week to seven years of hard labor but freed Sunday with the help of a visiting U.S. senator.

Meanwhile, democracy icon Suu Kyi and her two live-in aides remain in detention because of Yettaw's visit -- a turn of events that the 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate called "very ugly," according to her lawyers.

Yettaw, who is reportedly in poor health, flew with Sen. Jim Webb to neighboring Thailand on a U.S. government plane and underwent two days of medical tests at a private Bangkok hospital.

Seated in a wheelchair and wearing a face mask, Yettaw said "Love you!" to an Associated Press reporter before heading onto a United Airlines flight Wednesday morning. He repeatedly flashed the sign language symbol for "I love you," but made no other comments.

Dressed in a rumpled white shirt and tan pants, Yettaw looked pale and haggard. Asked about his health, he pointed to an IV inserted in the back of his right hand.

A woman who identified herself as a nurse held Yettaw's other hand as he was wheeled to a business class lounge at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport and told a reporter "he needs rest."

Yettaw was ticketed through to Springfield, Missouri in a business class seat, with stops in Tokyo and Chicago, according to airline officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose his itinerary.

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Cynthia Brown said she "cannot confirm his travel plans due to privacy concerns."

In early May, Yettaw traveled to Myanmar and donned homemade flippers for a nighttime swim to Suu Kyi's lakeside home. The bizarre incident led to trial that sparked global condemnation in which Suu Kyi was sentenced to an additional 18 months of detention for breaching the terms of her house arrest. She has already spent 14 of the past 20 years in detention.

Yettaw testified that he was on a divine mission to save Suu Kyi, saying he had a "vision" she was going to be assassinated and wanted to warn her. Suu Kyi testified that she repeatedly asked Yettaw to leave but relented because he complained of exhaustion and she was concerned for his safety. Suu Kyi's two assistants who live with her received the same sentence.

"It's very ugly that the person who caused the problem was released but the three people in the house remain detained," Suu Kyi said, according to attorney Nyan Win who visited her Monday.

Myanmar has said that Yettaw was freed on humanitarian grounds and because of his health. He reportedly suffers from diabetes, epilepsy and asthma and was hospitalized for a week during his trial after suffering seizures.

Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962. The junta last called elections in 1990 but refused but refused to honor the results when Suu Kyi's opposition party won overwhelmingly.

Diplomats and Myanmar experts widely believe Yettaw's intrusion into Suu Kyi's home gave the junta a legal pretext to keep her locked up through general elections scheduled for next year, which will be the first in two decades.

When Webb, a Democrat from Virginia, visited Myanmar last weekend he was given unprecedented access. He held rare meetings with both Suu Kyi and the country's reclusive leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, becoming the first senior U.S. politician to meet the junta chief.

The junta's uncharacteristic hospitality has fueled questions over whether this could mark a turning point in Myanmar-U.S. relations and lead to a softening of longtime sanctions -- a prospect academics say is unlikely as long as the junta ignores international demands to free Suu Kyi ahead of 2010 elections.

[Associated Press; By JOCELYN GECKER]

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