Police tightened security around Myanmar’s detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday after a US man was arrested for allegedly swimming across a lake and sneaking into her lakeside home.
The Myanmar Ahlin newspaper reported that authorities fished the man out of Yangon’s Inya Lake early on Wednesday while he was returning from the visit to Aung San Suu Kyi’s home. The report identified the man as John William Yeattaw but gave no details of his motives.
It would be the first time anyone has sneaked into Aung San Suu Kyi’s compound or swam across the lake in an attempt to get there.
More than 20 police entered Aung San Suu Kyi’s compound yesterday morning, according to neighbors who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals in the military-ruled country. Despite police checkpoints and barbed-wire barricades outside the home, police rarely enter Aung San Suu Kyi’s compound, where she has been kept under house arrest for more than 13 of the past 19 years.
The newspaper report said the US man had confessed to swimming across the lake on Sunday evening, sneaking into Aung San Suu Kyi’s residence and then swimming back late on Tuesday before being spotted by police and arrested early on Wednesday.
“He secretly entered the house and stayed there,” the newspaper reported, saying that he swam with an empty 5 liter plastic water jug, presumably to use as a float. “Further investigation is under way to find out his motive for secretly entering the restricted area.”
Police confiscated the man’s belongings, which included a US passport, a black backpack, a pair of pliers, a camera and two US$100 bills, the newspaper reported.
A spokesman from the US embassy in Yangon said consular officers were “seeking access” to the man as is routine in any case of a US citizen arrested overseas.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s home is tightly guarded and she is not allowed visitors, aside from her doctor. Swimming in Inya Lake in the vicinity of Aung San Suu Kyi’s compound is not allowed.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been held without trial for leading an internationally hailed movement for democracy in Myanmar, which has been ruled by the military with an iron fist since 1962.
Earlier this week, the junta rejected an appeal to free Aung San Suu Kyi, whose most recent period of detention is due to expire on May 27.
National League for Democracy spokesman Nyan Win said military authorities summoned the assistant to Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyer to the administrative capital of Naypyitaw last Friday and handed over a letter rejecting the appeal for her release.
Nyan Win said he was still hopeful Aung San Suu Kyi could be freed this month when her six-year detention expires.
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