Myanmar police testify at Suu Kyi trial
Myanmar police gave evidence yesterday against detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on the second day of a trial for breaching her house arrest that has sparked international outrage.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner is accused of violating security laws after an American, John Yettaw, swam to her lakeside home earlier this month, a charge which could see her jailed for between three and five years.
Around 100 members of her opposition party gathered outside the notorious Insein prison near Yangon, where the trial is being held behind closed doors, watched by riot police manning a tight security cordon.
Yettaw and two female political aides who live with Aung San Suu Kyi at her residence, where she has been detained for most of the last 19 years, are also on trial.
"Police witnesses gave more testimony from their official complaints at the trial today," a Myanmar official told AFP on condition of anonymity, without providing any more information.
Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy was expected to give further details after proceedings end for the day.
The first witness, a police colonel who filed the original complaint against her, gave evidence on Monday.
Of a total of 22 witnesses expected to testify, 21 are police officers.
The trial has led to renewed calls for the release of the 63-year-old, and late Monday Myanmar's partners in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), which rarely criticises the junta, finally joined in.
A statement issued by Thailand, which holds the rotating chairmanship of the bloc, expressed "grave concern about recent developments relating to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, given her fragile health."
But Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva ruled out imposing sanctions as some western countries have done, saying he hoped Myanmar "will consider Asean as friends."
In Manila, about 30 protesters marched in front of Myanmar's embassy on Tuesday to call for her freedom and there were similar protests on Monday in Canada, Japan, Thailand and Hong Kong.
Myanmar's tightly controlled state media reported on the trial for the first time, giving a rare mention of the imprisoned activist, who is still seen as the junta's most powerful foe.
State television and radio carried brief items late Monday while the government mouthpiece New Light of Myanmar newspaper and Burmese-language Myanmar Ahlin had back-page reports on Tuesday.
In Washington, US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Monday that a US consular officer was present in the courtroom for the trial.
Yettaw used a pair of homemade flippers to swim across the lake to Aung San Suu Kyi's house, where he allegedly stayed between May 3 and May 5. He is also alleged to have crossed to the property on November 30, 2008.
Aung San Suu Kyi's latest six-year period of detention was due to expire on May 27, but Yettaw's visit has apparently provided the ruling generals with a timely excuse to extend her detention past polls due in 2010.
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