Riot police ring Suu Kyi's prison as trial looms

Riot police behind barbed wire barricades ringed a notorious prison where pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was due to go on trial today for allegedly harbouring an American man who swam to her lakeside home.

The tight security came as activist groups, which spearheaded an uprising against Burma’s military rulers in 2007, called for peaceful protest rallies in front of Rangoon’s Insein prison until Ms Suu Kyi was freed.

Yesterday her defence lawyer said she was innocent of the charges, which could put her into prison for up to five years.

“We call all political forces for Free Aung San Suu Kyi to mobilise all over Burma, by holding praying sessions in homes, places of worship ... and holding silent, peaceful rallies in front of Insein prison,” said a statement from three activist groups.

The groups included an organisation of Buddhist monks, who were at the forefront of the 2007 protests, brutally crushed by the regime.

Security forces blocked all roads leading to the prison as several hundred riot police, many armed with guns, batons and shields, guarded the perimeter of Insein, where the regime has for years incarcerated political prisoners. There was no sign of any protesters near the prison.

“After listening to the sequence of events, it is very clear that there is no breach of conditions of her restrictions,” lawyer Kyi Win said after visiting the Nobel Peace Prize laureate in the prison over the weekend.

Ms Suu Kyi (aged 63) was charged on Thursday with violating the terms of her detention by sheltering John Yettaw, reportedly a Vietnam War veteran, who will also be tried along with two female assistants who have been with Ms Suu Kyi since 2003.

Ms Suu Kyi had been scheduled to be freed on May 27 after six consecutive years of house arrest.

The charges are widely seen as a pretext for the ruling junta to keep her detained past elections it has scheduled for next year as the culmination of a “road map to democracy” which has been criticised as a fig leaf for continued military control.

Burma has been ruled by its military since 1962. The regime lost democratic elections in 1990 but did not honour the landslide victory of Ms Suu Kyi’s party.

In today’s court session, Mr Kyi Win said Ms Suu Kyi’s defence team would ask for an open trial and may also request bail. The prosecution is expected to call 22 witnesses during the trial.

Mr Kyi Win said Ms Suu Kyi was ready to tell her side of the story. “She has always been ready to tell the truth,” he said.

On Sunday, a family member said Ms Suu Kyi’s personal doctor, Tin Myo Win, was released by authorities a day earlier after being taken from his home on May 7, a day after Mr Yettaw was arrested near Ms Suu Kyi’s lakeside residence, where she has been detained for more than 13 of the last 19 years.

It is not known why Tin Myo Win was arrested. A spokesman for Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy earlier said the doctor’s detention may have been related to the American swimmer, who has been labelled a “fool” by the pro-democracy movement.

Her latest arrest has sparked a storm of international appeals to Burma’s government to free her and to restore democracy in the country.

In unusually sharp criticism from a south-east Asian nation, Philippine foreign affairs secretary Alberto Romulo said his government was “deeply troubled and outraged” over the “trumped-up charges” against Ms Suu Kyi.

Exactly why Mr Yettaw, of Falcon, Missouri, swam across the lake to see Ms Suu Kyi remains unclear. After leaving, he was fished out of the lake by authorities about 1.2 miles from her residence and taken into custody.

“I cannot tell you what he was thinking when he made those swims or whether or not he considered the consequences for anyone but himself,” said Mr Yettaw’s stepson Paul today.

“He knew he could be caught and arrested, though I am very sure it never occurred to him that Suu Kyi or her companions could also suffer from his choices.”

His wife Betty earlier described her husband as eccentric, but peace-loving and “not political at all”.

According to his ex-wife Yvonne, he said he went to Asia to work on a psychology paper about forgiveness. She said he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and a head wound during his military service.