Myanmar yesterday accused opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi of deliberately covering up the presence of a US man in her home and warned foreign governments against interfering in the case.
“It is no doubt that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has committed a cover-up of the truth by her failure to report an illegal immigrant to the authorities concerned,” Major General Aye Myint, Myanmar’s deputy defense minister, told a security forum in Singapore.
“Thus there was no option but to open legal proceedings in accordance with the law,” he said.
“She permitted him to stay ... She communicated, provided him food and shelter,” he said.
The Nobel laureate is on trial at Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison and faces up to five years in jail on charges of breaching the terms of her house arrest. She has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention.
John Yettaw, a 53-year-old Mormon and US military veteran, was arrested on May 6 after swimming to Aung San Suu Kyi’s house using a pair of homemade flippers and spending two nights there.
He is also on trial.
In his speech yesterday to regional security officials and experts, Aye Myint said the case against Aung San Suu Kyi was an internal matter for Myanmar to resolve.
“Countries should refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of Myanmar that will affect peace and security of the region,” he said.
Critics say Myanmar’s military regime trumped up the charges in a bid to keep Aung San Suu Kyi locked up ahead of next year’s elections. The latest six-year period of her house arrest expired on Wednesday.
“It is the universal legal principle that no one is above the law,” Aye Myint said.
“Only when this legal principle is upheld, put into practice and encouraged will there be rule of law in a country,” he said, adding that “anarchy will prevail” if offenders are not punished.
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