Burma News (5.15.09)

by Danny Fisher

Two big headlines today in regards to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s upcoming military trial:

  • Reuters reports that the European Union has joined the international chorus of voices opposing Suu Kyi’s criminal charges and incarceration in Insein Prison. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in a statement:

      I deeply regret that … (Nobel Peace Prize winner) Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi has been arrested by the authorities of Myanmar and charged with violating the terms of her detention. In fact, instead of being arrested she should have been released from house arrest, which was a clear violation of international law as determined by the United Nations…I urge the authorities of Myanmar to consider the consequences for national reconciliation if Mrs Suu Kyi and other political prisoners continue to be detained.

  • The Washington Post reports that the home in which Suu Kyi has spent thirteen of the last nineteen years under house arrest is now in danger.

      A little-known lawsuit filed by Suu Kyi’s estranged older brother, a U.S. citizen, poses another threat. In 2001, Aung San Oo demanded ownership of half of the two-story house that had been the property of their mother. A Burmese court suspended the case because foreigners may not own property in Burma, but sources in Rangoon have indicated in recent weeks that the suit may be revived. The courts in Burma are completely under the control of the military junta.