Wednesday, May 13

Burmese shenanigans

UK's Independent:
Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years, will be charged in connection with an alleged visit by an American man to her Rangoon home. Her detention was set to end later this month.

The 63-year-old Nobel Prize-winning opponent of the ruling military junta will be moved to Rangoon's Insein Prison today, a spokesman for the National League for Democracy said.

Reports emerged last week that John William Yettaw, from Missouri, had been arrested for swimming across a lake to Suu Kyi's compound and spending two days there. The US Embassy has requested access to the detained man, which has not been granted, embassy spokesman Richard Mei said. He confirmed that Mr Yettaw had made a previous visit to Burma, and said his family had been told of his arrest.

Pro-democracy activists and diplomats in Rangoon have voiced suspicions that the incident may have been concocted by the government.

[..] The NLD won a landslide victory in elections in 1990 but the military refused to let the party assume office. The country has been under military rule since 1962.

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