By Ed Johnson
Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s house arrest was extended by 18 months after she was found guilty of breaching a detention order, triggering international condemnation of the military regime.
A court in the former capital, Yangon, gave her three years in jail and hard labor, a sentence the junta immediately commuted, Jared Genser, her U.S.-based attorney said after today’s verdict. A U.S. citizen who swam to her lakeside home, sparking the case, was given seven years’ hard labor, he added.
The U.S., the European Union, Australia, France and the U.K. condemned the verdict and called for the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s release. “She should not have been tried and she should not have been convicted,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said today.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon “strongly deplores” the court’s decision. “The secretary-general is deeply disappointed” and urges Suu Kyi’s immediate release, according to a statement released at the UN in New York.
France is requesting an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council today to react to the verdict, and will circulate a draft statement for the council to adopt, the French mission to the UN said.
House Arrest
Suu Kyi was accused of breaking her house arrest order by allowing American John Yettaw to stay for two days in May after he swam to her home in Yangon, where she was under guard. Today’s ruling may prevent her participation in elections scheduled for 2010.
Clinton said Yettaw is among more than 2,000 political prisoners in Myanmar who should be freed. He has been hospitalized after having epileptic seizures, the Associated Press reported, citing police.
“We are concerned about the harsh sentence imposed upon him, especially in light of his medical condition,” Clinton told reporters in Goma, during a visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The regime in the country formerly known as Burma was acting with “total disregard for accepted standards of the rule of law,” British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in a statement.
‘Political Sentence’
“This is a purely political sentence,” Brown said. “The UN Security Council, whose will has been flouted, must also now respond resolutely and impose a worldwide ban on the sale of arms to the regime.”
Condemning the verdict as “brutal and unjust,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in an e-mailed statement that any new sanctions against Myanmar should target wood and rubies because profits from their sale go directly to the government.
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said the government would summon Myanmar’s ambassador to express dismay.
“The regime still has the opportunity to set aside the conviction and sentence, release Aung San Suu Kyi and move down the path of national reconciliation,” Smith said in a statement.
The EU will tighten sanctions against the junta, the bloc’s Swedish presidency said.
“The EU will respond with additional targeted measures against those responsible for the verdict,” Sweden said in an e-mailed statement in Brussels. “In addition, the EU will further reinforce its restrictive measures targeting the regime of Burma/Myanmar, including its economic interests.”
EU Urges Release
Calling Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial “unjustified,” the EU urged Myanmar “to immediately and unconditionally release her.”
Suu Kyi, 64, denied the charges and blamed the security breach on the regime. She has spent more than 13 years in detention since her National League for Democracy won Myanmar’s last elections in 1990, a result rejected by the military. She has been under house arrest since 2003. The junta said the law allowed it to detain her for six years, meaning she would have been due for release in May this year until the new charges were brought.
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has joined calls for the release of Suu Kyi and the other political prisoners in Myanmar.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of Thailand, which chairs Asean, declined to comment today when asked about Suu Kyi’s sentence. Myanmar is a member of the 10-nation bloc.
‘Clearly Arbitrary’
Genser, who is president of the U.S.-based Freedom Now group, said by telephone from Washington the verdict “is clearly arbitrary and in breach of international law.”
Acting on behalf of Suu Kyi’s family, the lawyer said he filed a petition to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. “This reaffirms the need for the international community to take the situation in Burma seriously and act in the UN Security Council to press for national reconciliation,” he said.
President Barack Obama, who extended sanctions against Myanmar’s military regime last month, has denounced the proceedings as a “show trial.”
When Suu Kyi’s trial started in May, Myanmar “strongly rejected” a statement from Asean calling for her release. Suu Kyi’s detention and trial are “in accordance with the normal practice in every state” and “merely the internal affairs of Myanmar,” the state-run New Light of Myanmar reported at the time.
Trevor Wilson, Australia’s ambassador to Myanmar from 2000 to 2003, said the verdict could trigger peaceful street protests in Myanmar.
“There is a feeling among the people that Suu Kyi is their only hope,” Wilson, a visiting fellow at the Australian National University in Canberra, said in a telephone interview. “Both inside and outside the country it will not be accepted as reasonable, fair and proper,” he said. “The attempt at magnanimity just is not going to wash.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Ed Johnson in Sydney at ejohnson28@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: August 11, 2009 10:52 EDT
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=abn_phjgp5n4#
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