Suu Kyi Lawyers protest innocence as trial begins

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6312579.ece

May 18, 2009
Lawyers for Aung San Suu Kyi protest innocence as trial begins
Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Editor

Lawyers for Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese democracy leader, said that she was innocent of any crime as the country’s military dictatorship put her on trial for allowing an eccentric American intruder to stay in her house.

Protesters marched outside Burma’s embassies across the world and European foreign ministers debated imposing new sanctions as Ms Suu Kyi appeared in the closed court room in the grounds of Insein Prison in Rangoon. A delegation of senior foreign diplomats, including Britain’s ambassador to Burma, was turned back by soldiers after attempting to observe the trial.

According to her lawyers Ms Suu Kyi appeared healthy and calm at the hearing in the prison compound where she has been held since her arrest last week. Appearing alongside her were her two friends and housekeepers, a mother and daughter named Khin Khin Win and Win Ma Ma, and John Yettaw, the 53-year-old American who swam across a lake to gain access to her heavily guarded house this month.

Her lawyer, Kyi Win, said that she denied committing a crime. “She just felt sorry for this man as he had leg cramps after he swam across the lake,” he said. “That’s why she allowed him to stay. She did not want anybody to get into trouble because of her.”

“She looked quite well,” said Nyan Win, a spokesman for Ms Suu Kyi’s political party, the National League for Democracy (NLD). “She said she was OK. If things go according to the law, we surely will win this case.”

But Burmese courts almost never find in favour of opponents of the Government in political trials. An application by lawyers for Ms Suu Kyi for a public trial was rejected by the judges.

The prosecution called the first of 22 witnesses, Police Colonel Zaw Min Aung, who filed the formal complaint against Ms Suu Kyi. “Madam Aung San Suu Kyi allowed him to stay at her residence until the night of May 5, 2009, spoke with him, and provided him food and drinks,” the charge sheet read. “We found that Khin Khin Win and Win Ma Ma also helped Madam Aung San Suu Kyi’s treatment of Mr Yettaw.”

Mr Yettaw, described by his family in the United States as a well-meaning eccentric, is to be charged with trespass and immigration offences.

Mark Canning, the British ambassador to Burma, along with the ambassadors of France, Germany and Italy, and an Australian diplomat, were turned away without explanation at the military cordon that has been set up around the prison. The charges against Ms Suu Kyi have been denounced as a travesty by Western governments and international human rights organisations.

“There was never any expectation of getting through, but we were making a point,” Mr Canning told The Times by telephone from Rangoon.

“The point is that this whole process should not be going on. The debate over the terms of the house arrest is irrelevant, because she should never have been under house arrest in the first place. This is the only country in the world where someone can break into your home, and you end up being charged.”

The trial, which is taking place behind closed doors in a courthouse inside the Insein Prison compound, could last between a few days and a few weeks.

About 200 members of Ms Suu Kyi’s political party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), staged a protest outside the prison, under surveillance by armed and plain-clothes police. One man, a leader of the NLD youth wing, was reported to have been arrested.

Squads of pro-government militia were brought into the area around Insein over the weekend, and local shops were ordered to close, as the authorities acted to pre-empt public anger before the trial.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said that additional sanctions should be brought against Burma as foreign ministers gathered in Brussels. But the proposal will provoke debate about the effectiveness of European and US sanctions against a country that is being eagerly courted by China and India.

“I don’t think additional sanctions will help because you have seen they have not helped,” the EU’s External Relations Commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, said. “We have to reinforce dialogue with Burma’s neighbours. I think that is the way forward. it should always be a subject of discussion with China, India and others.”