ENGLISH DEYEA NEWS

Ms Suu Kyi and two of her companions have been on trial since May

Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Editor / The Times | The Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is facing an almost certain criminal conviction and a sentence of up to five years in prison when a Rangoon court delivers its verdict at the end of this week, her defence team said yesterday.

Wrapping up her two-and-a-half-month trial, Ms Suu Kyi’s lawyers gave their reply to the prosecution’s final arguments in a court in Insein prison, Rangoon. She is accused of violating the terms of her lengthy house arrest by giving shelter to an eccentric American who entered the lakeside home where she has spent 14 of the past 20 years in detention.

Speaking softly, Ms Suu Kyi stood and turned to diplomats attending the hearing and said: “I’m afraid the verdict will be painfully obvious.”

“She thanked us for trying to promote a just outcome,” said an Asian diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity. Only diplomats from the US, Japan, Singapore and Thailand were allowed to attend the last day of the trial.

Her lawyers held out little hope of an acquittal when the verdict is delivered. “We have a good chance according to the law but we cannot know what the court will decide because this is a political case,” said Nyan Win, a lawyer for Ms Suu Kyi and the spokesman for her party, the National League for Democracy. “I have never seen any defendant in a political case being set free. We have done our best and she is prepared for the worst.”

Ms Suu Kyi and two of her companions have been on trial since May for giving shelter to John Yettaw, who swam uninvited to her heavily guarded home in central Rangoon. She says that she did nothing wrong in giving food and shelter to Mr Yettaw, and that she refrained from handing him over to the authorities to avoid bringing trouble on him and on the police who were supposed to have been guarding her house.

Many critics of Burma’s military dictatorship accuse it of using the bizarre incident as a pretext for continuing to deprive her of her freedom until after the elections that it is promising to hold next year. Her lawyers argue that, even according to its own regulations, Ms Suu Kyi’s house arrest was due to expire this year.

The defence lost its attempt to put a Foreign Ministry official on trial after the court said that his testimony was “not important”. All but two witnesses summoned by the defence had been rejected. But the generals may have misjudged the strength of international sympathy provoked by the case. Even Burma’s neighbours in the Association of South-East Asian Nations, who generally avoid any criticism of one another’s internal affairs, expressed dismay at the trial. Yesterday the junta postponed a visit to Burma by Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Thai Prime Minister, who was especially critical of the regime, apparently because the trip coincided with Friday’s verdict on Ms Suu Kyi.

Burma’s senior general, Than Shwe, has shown no sign of relenting to the pressure. When Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, visited the regime’s isolated new capital, Naypyidaw, early this month, he suffered the humiliation of being refused the opportunity to meet Ms Suu Kyi.

A young boy demands freedom for Aung San Suu Kyi outside the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok

The state media, which are firmly under the control of the Government, have rejected criticisms of the trial. “Suu Kyi is not a political prisoner but the person who is on trial for breaching an existing law,” the New Light of Myanmar said in an editorial last week. “Demanding release of Daw Suu Kyi means showing reckless disregard for the law. The court will hand down a reasonable term to her if she is found guilty, and it will release her if she is found not guilty.”

Given this intransigence, and the regime’s record of locking up political prisoners, more than 2,000 of whom are in detention, it seems unlikely that she will be acquitted. Diplomats in Rangoon speculate that she may eventually be pardoned by General Than Shwe in an attempt to appear magnanimous. Even if she is released from jail, it will be to the continuing confinement of house arrest.

A diplomat present in the court last week said that Ms Suu Kyi appeared healthy during the three-hour hearing. “She was joking with her defence team and smiling,” the diplomat said. “She was 100 per cent engaged with what was going on, ramrod-straight, and resplendent in a yellow skirt.”

Mr Yettaw has been charged with immigration violations and with swimming in an unauthorised place, as well as with abetting Ms Suu Kyi in violating the terms of her house arrest. Like her, he could be sentenced to five years in jail if convicted, along with Ms Suu Kyi’s two female companions.