Democracy News

World Reacts to Suu Kyi Sentence in Burma
By Keona Padgett
August 11, 2009 | Printer Friendly

On Tuesday, August 11, Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to three years of hard labor for violating her house arrest, but the sentence was commuted to an additional 18 months of house arrest.  According to Seth Mydans of The New York Times, a five-minute recess was called after the initial verdict was given, after which General Maung Oo, the country’s home minister, returned and read an order of commutation issued by the leader of the junta, General Than Shwe.  Mydans notes that “the 18-month term will ensure that Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi will be confined during a parliamentary election due next year.”  Many analysts and critics of Burma’s military regime say the verdict was specifically designed to keep her from participating in the 2010 election since her previous sentence of house arrest ended on May 27.  Kate McGeown of the BBC said the following of the verdict: “the fact that the Burmese generals have decided to give Aung San Suu Kyi less than the maximum sentence shows they are willing to bow, at least to some extent, to the will of the international community.  But at the same time they still have what they really wanted-Aung San Suu Kyi will now be safely out of the way as they prepare for next year’s elections.”

In a previous Voice of America article on Suu Kyi, Daniel Schearf had noted that her party, the National League for Democracy, won Burma’s last election in 1990, but the military would not give up power.  Suu Kyi had spent almost 14 years under house arrest and was on trial for violating her arrest in May when she allowed an American man, John Yettaw, to stay with her for two days after he swam to her lakeside home and said he “wanted to save her from assassins.”  As reported by the BBC, Yettaw was sentenced to three years in prison for violating Suu Kyi’s house arrest, three years of hard labor for an immigration offence, and an additional one year of hard labor for swimming in a restricted zone.  Two female housemates of Suu Kyi were also convicted for allowing Yettaw to enter the home and will serve the same 18-month sentence as Suu Kyi.

Many countries and members of the international community have condemned the sentence.  According to The New York Times, United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that Suu Kyi “‘should not have been tried, and she should not have been convicted.  We continue to call for her release.’”  Clinton also said that Myanmar’s leaders “need to start a dialogue with the political opposition and address human rights obligations, ‘otherwise the elections they have scheduled for next year will have absolutely no legitimacy.’”  Similarly, Deputy International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ebrahim Ebrahim of South Africa has said that “‘the South African government believes an opportunity for movement towards democratization, nation building, and reconciliation has been lost,’” and South Africa’s government “called on all political role players in Myanmar to start ‘an inclusive dialogue’ to create conditions for ‘democratization and political inclusivity.’”  Irene Khan, the Secretary General of Amnesty International, said that “while the Myanmar authorities ‘will hope that a sentence that is shorter than the maximum will be seen by the international community as an act of leniency,’ it ‘must not be seen as such.’”  Although some, like UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, have called the sentence “purely political,” the government newspaper, The New Light of Myanmar, has denied such claims and insists that it is based on “purely criminal conduct.”

References:

New York Times: Burmese Activist Receives New Term of House Arrest

New York Times: Myanmar Sentence Draws Criticism

BBC News: Burma court finds Suu Kyi Guilty

VOA News: Indonesia says Burma Must Release Democracy Leader for Elections to be Credible

South Africa Statement on Suu Kyi