ASEAN expressed “grave concern” yesterday but ruled out sanctions in its first official reaction to the trial of Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on charges of breaching her house arrest.
The regional bloc, which rarely speaks out on the domestic political issues of its 10 members, issued a statement through current chair Thailand to urge the immediate release of the Nobel Peace laureate.
“Thailand, as the ASEAN Chair, expresses grave concern about recent developments relating to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, given her fragile health,” said the statement, issued five days after the charges against her were first filed.
“With the eyes of the international community on Myanmar at present, the honor and the credibility of the government of the Union of Myanmar are at stake,” it said.
But Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva later said ASEAN, which has been widely criticized in the West for failing to take its most troublesome member to task, would not react with sanctions.
“This latest incident has triggered concern from the international community. We want the current situation to ease off but as members of ASEAN we have to work together constructively to solve this problem,” Abhisit said.
“We hope that Myanmar will consider ASEAN members as friends. The attitude of ASEAN members is unchanged, unlike those countries far away. We have no plan to follow their stance,” he said.
Individual ASEAN nations have issued much stronger statements about Aung San Suu Kyi’s plight in recent days, with the Philippines describing the charges as “trumped up” and Indonesia calling them “arbitrary.”
Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest or in jail for 13 of the last 19 years. Her latest six-year period of detention was due to expire next Wednesday, but American John Yettaw’s visit to her lakeside home has apparently provided the junta with an excuse to extend her detention past elections due next year.
Police officers described to a court yesterday how they arrested Yettaw.
The closed-door trial at Insein prison heard evidence from five witnesses, including four police who detained the American as he swam back across the lake after spending two nights at her house, said Nyan Win, the spokesman for Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy.
“The witnesses described the situation when they arrested him. They said they watched him as he swam and at first they thought he was a thief,” said Nyan Win, who was allowed to be in the court as part of Aung San Suu Kyi’s legal team.
He said that the trial could finish by next week if the court continues to hear the case at the current rate.
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