Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Aung San Suu Kyi says trial is test of Burma's legal and political system

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A passerby looks at a poster of Aung San Suu Kyi in a cage during a Tokyo protest on her 64th birthday to demand her release. Photograph: AFP/Tishifumi Kitamura

Aung San Suu Kyi has described her trial for violating the terms of her house arrest as a test of the entire legal and governmental system installed by Burma's ruling junta.

In a statement to the trial, a transcript of which has just been released by supporters, the pro-democracy leader argued that no proper verdict could be reached without an assessment of the legality of the process under which she has been detained at her home for the past five years.



The comments were published as it was reported that the American man, whose surprise arrival at her lakeside home prompted the trial, had been admitted to hospital.

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Unnamed medical sources quoted by the Associated Press said John Yettaw, 53, had been taken to Rangoon's main hospital yesterday after suffering seizures, and his condition was now improving.

Yettaw, whose motives remain unclear, swam to Aung San Suu Kyi's home in the city in May and stayed there for two nights. He faces charges at the same hearing, where a verdict is due next week.

According to the transcript released by the leader's party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), she told the court last week that she had allowed Yettaw to stay "without malice, simply with intent to ensure that no one concerned should suffer any adverse consequences".

Her statement continued: "The court will pronounce on the innocence or guilt of a few individuals. The verdict will constitute a judgment on the whole of legal, justice and constitutional system in our country."

The 64-year-old Nobel peace prize winner, who has been in various forms of detention for 14 of the last 20 years, said the charges hinged on her house arrest being permissible.

"Throughout, my lawyers have been scrupulous in their efforts to procure due process, which is critical to the rule of law. Equally critical is the principle that justice must be done and seen to be done, clearly and unequivocally," she said.

The NLD won a crushing victory in a general election in 1990, a vote which was then ignored by the military, which has ruled Burma since 1962.

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