by Andre Marshall/Bangkok
TIME
Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi will spend another 18 months as a prisoner of Burma’s military junta, a Rangoon court decreed today. She was found guilty of violating the terms of her house arrest after an American man called John Yettaw swam to her lakeside house in Rangoon in May. Yettaw, who has been in poor health, was sentenced to seven years in prison with hard labor.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was initially jailed for three years with hard labor until a special order from junta chief General Than Shwe was read out in court commuting her sentence to 18 months under house arrest. The verdict has prompted further global outrage and renewed calls for stronger action against the dictatorship. Suu Kyi has already spent more than 13 of the past 20 years in jail or detention.
The verdict was delayed, apparently while Burma’s generals calculated the likely domestic and global response to its continued persecution of the world’s most famous political prisoner. The junta’s idea of lenience – an 18-month sentence – is long enough to keep Suu Kyi in custody during a 2010 election which will formalize the military’s grip on power, but shorter than the maximum sentence of five years in the notorious Insein Prison. “The generals are trying to manage the anger of both the international community and the people of Burma,” says Win Min, a Burma analyst at Payap University in Chiang Mai in neighboring Thailand.
The attempt will probably backfire. The verdict is likely to cripple the prospect of better relations with the U.S, which had tied an ongoing review of its pro-sanctions policy to Suu Kyi’s release. “The door remains open for the regime to respect the wishes of the Burmese people and international community,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement last week. Today’s decision has apparently slammed that door shut.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called the verdict “monstrous” and urged the United Nations Security Council to impose an international arms embargo on the regime. Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Anifah Aman expressed “grave concern” over the verdict and called for an urgent meeting of his counterparts in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a regional organization that is usually supportive of Burma. A global arms embargo is “the most effective way of showing this military dictatorship that it can no longer defy the international community,” says Zoya Phan of London-based advocacy group Burma Campaign.
Local outrage has been necessarily muted, what with 2,000 police and militiamen at the prison to prevent any protests. Since 2007, when monks led an abortive uprising, Burma’s opposition has been all but neutralized by a pitiless campaign of arrests and lengthy sentences. (Read about the 2007 crackdown in Burma.)
The outcome of the trial was unsurprising. “I’m afraid the verdict will be painfully obvious,” Suu Kyi was heard to say in court last month. But she isn’t going to prison. According to recent reports, she was stockpiling Winston Churchill’s biographies and other books in anticipation of jail time. “If you are going through hell,” Britain’s wartime leader famously said, “keep going.” Suu Kyi and her supporters can do little else. TIME
magpapapel na naman ba si bansot dito? if i remember, isa siya sa mga nagpapogi points about myanmar.
aber nga, ano na naman kayang lalabas sa mga bibig ng kanyang super sinungaling na mga spokespersons.
sige gloria, bunot na, dali, at baka maunahan ka, biglang bawiin ni obama ang designation mo!
wehehehhehhe….
Nobody is surprised at the verdict. Expected na iyan.
My heart goes to fellow Oxonian, Aung San Suu Kyi. Will join the rally at the Burmese embassy this weekend with my Burmese friends.
As for Gloria Dorobo pretending to be a champion of Suu Kyi, puede ba, tumigil na siya? Nakakasira lang siya sa eksena. Bumaba na muna siya para maayos na ang bansa niya. Pwe!
With the additional 18 months in detention, the ruling junta has virtually shutout ASSK out of the running in next year’s elections. But you can’t defeat a determined activist, you may imprison her body but not her soul. Douse her with water cannons but the fervor will keep burning in her heart.
Look, she is Ninoy and Cory combined. She even wears yellow most of the time. She can get around this by naming her candidate if she won’t be allowed to run. She can rally the oppressed to her cause like she did the last time. If her anointed one is still denied the presidency, in case he/she wins, the military regime is asking for trouble, this time the foreign leaders will rally around ASSK’s group especially now that Obama has shown peculiar interest in Burma.
And where Barack is deeply concerned, his “assistant”, Pandack will surely be hugging the limelights.
Grabeng KSP! (Kulang sa Silicone si Putot!)
Kaya pala gumagalaw na parang gulaman! 😛
Part of a democratic struggle against the autocratic/authoritarian/dictatorial regime!
Ibagsak ang diktatura…arm struggle ang kailangan kundi makuha sa pakiusap or else mag-antay kung kailan magsisipanaw ang mga pahirap na yan sa bayan.
We love you Mayanmar people…you’re not ALONE in this struggle, be strong and united in one common-cause…”to liberate your country and fellowman against tyranny and oppressions.
Try to help and protect your beloved Icon to face all this trials and hardships now you encountered from the evil military regime.
Indeed, the world is changing.
Kung sino ang lumalaban para sa katarungan at katotohanan ang kinukulong habang ‘yung mga bumabaluktot ng tama ang namamayagpag.
Anti Christs prevail!
This is the example sowed by the WMD annointed by her god (dog).
WMD – woman mastering deception.
The Rabbit con Pandak is just using her para sumikat siya.
HOT! HOT! HOT!
(Thanks to MLQ3)
In today’s issue of Washington Post, columnists Roxanne Roberts and Amy Argetsinger of “The Reliable Source”:
Take note: “Handbag stuffed with cash”.
Sorry, forgot to include the link.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/reliable-source/2009/08/rs-dinner12.html
The “unidentified woman opened a handbag stuffed with cash” must be Medy Poblador.
Take note: “Handbag stuffed with cash”.
People are starving in some of the barangays in Rosario, Cavite. You think this “unidentified woman with a handbag stuffed with cash” can share some of this taxpayers’ money with the people in those starving villages —even for just a day?
what will be the next palusot here. they can say anything since the people donot mind anyway, they might even say that the money came from obama and therefore it is american taxpayers money.