Myanmar links US Suu Kyi swimmer to exile groups
Jun 25th, 2009
YANGON (AFP) – Myanmar’s junta said Thursday that a US man on trial for swimming to the house of Aung San Suu Kyi had links with exile groups in Thailand, apparently toughening its stance ahead of a visit by a UN envoy.
| This Myanmar News Agency photo released in May 2009 shows John William Yettaw (3rdR at the table) talking to the consul of the US embassy Colin P. Furst (3rdL) at the Aung Thaeyey police detention centre in Yangon. Myanmar’s junta said that Yettaw, on trial for swimming to the house of Aung San Suu Kyi had links with exile groups in Thailand, apparently toughening its stance. (AFP/MNA/File) |
American John Yettaw, a devout Mormon and US military veteran, has told the trial that he was on a mission from God to warn the Nobel laureate after having a vision that she would be assassinated.
But the military-ruled nation’s police chief, for the first time, Thursday named top dissidents with whom Yettaw had allegedly met before making the first of two visits to the democracy icon’s lakeside residence.
Aung San Suu Kyi is also on trial for allegedly breaching the terms of her house arrest, over what she says were uninvited visits by Yettaw. Both face up to five years in jail.
The junta rolled out the allegations a day before UN troubleshooter Ibrahim Gambari was due to visit Myanmar to lay the groundwork for a planned visit by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
“According to concrete information, during Mr Yettaw’s stay in Thailand he met with some people from illegal organisations,” police chief Khin Yee told a hastily-arranged press conference at the interior ministry in Yangon.
He said that Yettaw had met Bo Kyi, co-founder of leading activist group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners of Burma, while he was staying in the Thai border town of Mae Sot in September-October 2008.
Bo Kyi spent seven years in jail following a failed student uprising in 1988 and is an outspoken critic of Myanmar’s military regime.
The police chief named eight other top dissidents whom Yettaw had allegedly met while in Thailand. Reports in exile magazines have previously said that Yettaw was in the neighbouring country at around the same time.
“It’s a thing to consider — what kind of person or organizations supported Mr John William Yettaw to stay… in Thailand and Myanmar for many months using much money although he has no regular job and income,” Khin Yee said.
“There might be some people, such as a planner or instructor or supporter behind the scenes. We are still investigating who or which organization,” he added.
The regime last month said Yettaw’s visits to Aung San Suu Kyi’s house were organised by “anti-government elements” and that he was a “secret agent or her boyfriend”, but has not yet given details of the alleged links.
The trial at Yangon’s notorious Insein prison has heard that Yettaw walked through a drain to briefly visit her house in November 2008 but only left a copy of the “Book of Mormon” and did not see her.
He then swam across a lake to the house in May before staying there for two nights.
UN chief Ban and Gambari have been trying to persuade Myanmar’s military regime to free all political detainees, including Aung San Suu Kyi.
The Nobel laureate has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention since the ruling generals refused to recognise the landslide victory of her National League for Democracy (NLD) in 1990 elections.
American intruder “key player” in Suu Kyi case, police say
Reuters
| Activists of Amnesty International hold posters showing a picture of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi during a protest to mark her 64th birthday in Berlin, June 19, 2009. :REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz |
YANGON (Reuters) – The American who swam to the home of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was the “key player” in the case against her and may not have been working alone, the country’s police chief said Friday.
Brigadier General Khin Yi said John Yettaw, whose May 4 visit to Suu Kyi’s home could see her jailed for five years, was a man of “high intelligence” who may have received outside support.
“It is quite clear, without a shadow of a doubt, that Mr. John William Yettaw is the key player in this incident,” Khin Yi told a news conference.
“There might have been some people who pulled the strings behind the scenes, gave instructions and even provided him with financial and material assistance,” he said.
“Necessary investigations are still going on to expose who and which organizations they are.”
Suu Kyi is charged with breaching the terms of her house arrest by allowing Yettaw to stay at her home for two days. She has blamed security guards for the breach.
The trial of the Nobel laureate, which is due to resume on Friday, has sparked outrage around the world and critics say the case is an attempt by Myanmar’s military rulers to keep her out of planned multi-party elections next year.
“SENT BY GOD”
Yettaw, 53, who is charged under the same law as Suu Kyi, has told the court that God sent him to warn her she was going to be assassinated by “terrorists.”
Khin Yi said Yettaw had shown no signs of mental illness and the way in which he was able to breach security and swim to Suu Kyi’s home showed he was a highly competent individual.
With the courts known to bend the rules to suit the military, which has ruled the former Burma for nearly 50 years, a guilty verdict for the charismatic National League for Democracy (NLD) Party leader is widely expected.
Suu Kyi is being charged under Section 22 of a security law protecting the state against “subversive elements,” but her lawyers say the case should be dropped because the legislation is now obsolete.
Khin Yi said an investigation into Yettaw’s past and his activities in neighboring Thailand showed he was poor and unable to afford accommodation or pay for air tickets from the United States without outside financial help.
“There is a lot of food for thought behind the fact that such an unemployed person who does not have any regular income came to Thailand and Myanmar and spent months there at a high cost,” he said.
Suu Kyi’s lawyer, Nyan Win, dismissed the police chief’s comments and said his client had no interest in Yettaw’s background.
“She had told us that it does not matter for her who was behind Mr. Yettaw and what motive he had,” Nyan Win told reporters.
(Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by David Fox)