Suu Kyi marks six years of detention as trial continues

Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi marked six years of continuous detention by Burma’s military regime today as she defended herself in court accused of sheltering an uninvited American.

Ms Suu Kyi (aged 63) insisted yesterday that she did not break the law. The trial in Rangoon, which is expected to culminate in a guilty verdict, has continued despite an international outcry that included unprecedented criticism from neighbouring governments in Asia.

US president Barrack Obama said the Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s detention, isolation and “show trial based on spurious charges” cast serious doubt on the Burmese government’s willingness to be a responsible member of the international community.

Asian and European ministers, meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam, called for a lifting of restrictions on Burma’s political parties, preparation for a free, fair and multi-party election in 2010, and Ms Suu Kyi’s release. Burma’s neighbour Thailand said it had “grave concerns” about the trial.

Ms Suu Kyi’s latest term of house arrest was to have ended today, according to her supporters. The regime argues that it would have expired in November, but in any event has cancelled her house arrest order, apparently because this is required by law when a suspect is charged with a crime .

She has spent more than 13 of the past 19 years in detention without trial, most at her dilapidated Rangoon home.

During yesterday’s court session, Ms Suu Kyi looked pale and weak as she answered judges’ questions for less than half an hour, giving terse replies about the incident earlier this month that could lead to her being sent to prison for five years.

The charge that she broke the terms of her detention is widely considered a pretext to keep her detained before elections the military government has planned for next year. She pleaded not guilty last Friday.

Burma’s courts operate under the influence of the military and almost always deal harshly with political dissidents.

Ms Suu Kyi acknowledges that she allowed John Yettaw, 53, to stay at her home for two days earlier this month after he swam across a lake to enter her house uninvited and then said he was too tired and ill to leave immediately.

But, through her lawyers, she said it was the responsibility of the security forces to keep intruders away from her home.

The democracy icon said she did not turn Mr Yettaw in because she did not want to get him or the guards around her house into trouble.

Mr Yettaw, of Falcon, Missouri, was arrested after he swam away. When he pleaded not guilty, he said he had a dream that Suu Kyi would be assassinated and he had gone to warn her.

Ms Suu Kyi offered few, if any, insights when she spoke after submitting a statement about the incident to the court. She gave brief, carefully phrased answers to the judges’ queries.

When asked whether she accepted books and gifts from Mr Yettaw – several items were found at her home – she replied: “I don’t know if Mr Yettaw had forgotten to take them or left them. Only Mr Yettaw will know.”

She is not expected to give evidence again, although she will be present for the rest of the trial. Two women assistants who live with her and Mr Yettaw have also have pleaded not guilty to the same charge.

Diplomats and reporters were allowed into the court for yesterday’s session, the second time during the trial that access has been granted.

Most stood in silence when Ms Suu Kyi entered the courtroom. As she walked past the diplomats and reporters, she said: “It’s difficult to talk this way. Thank you very much for your presence.”

The spectators remained standing even after a visibly irritated plainclothes policeman told everyone: “You can sit now.”

Only when she took her seat did they sit down. Six muscular policewomen and one female prison guard sat behind her.

Later, as four policewomen escorted her from the court, Ms Suu Kyi spoke again to the spectators. “Thank you for your concern and support. It is always good to see people from the outside world,” she said.

“Given her ordeal, she is in reasonably good shape,” said British ambassador Mark Canning.

Ms Suu Kyi rose to prominence as a leader of a 1988 democracy uprising that the military brutally suppressed. Her party won a general election in 1990 but the military, which has ruled the country since 1962, has never accepted the results.