Burma News (5.18.09)

by Danny Fisher

“Myanmar’s Insein Prison, where Auung San Suu Kyi and hundreds of others are held (c) Digital Globe 2008.” Image via Amnesty International.
[This post has been updated as of 4:40 p.m. PST on 5.18.09.]

Here are today’s headlines about Burma and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s military trail, which began this morning:

  • Reuters reports that Suu Kyi’s doctor has been released ahead of the trial, that protests are planned at Burma embassies around the world, and that Suu Kyi herself is defiant as the trial begins. Her lawyer told the press:

      She asked me to tell her friends and everyone that she is quite well. She is ready to tell the truth that she never broke the law.

  • The Associated Press, the BBC, CNN, the New York Times, and France 24 also report on the start of the trial.
  • In addition, the AP reports on the tight security at the trial.
  • One of Suu Kyi’s lawyers outlines the charges against her for Al Jazeera English.
  • At Human Rights Now – Amnesty International USA Blog, Christoph Koettl takes a closer look at the loathesome Insein Prison, where Suu Kyi and so many other political prisoners are currently being held.
  • Reuters also offers a robust bio of Suu Kyi, and further reports that the European Union may join the U.S. in renewing sanctions against the junta as this fiasco unfolds.
  • The editors of the Washington Post, regular commentators on the situation in Burma, sound off again today:

      Humanitarian organizations have been heavily lobbying for a change of policy, arguing that the regime is becoming more open to Western aid and influence, and that the current strategy of tough sanctions hasn’t worked. Yet the renewed persecution of this brave and ailing woman — whose party won the last fair election 19 years ago — shows that the generals have no interest in making meaningful concessions to Burma’s long-suffering people or to the West. If they did, they would use Monday’s court session to drop all charges against [American intruder John Yettaw] and Aung San Suu Kyi and allow them both to return home free.

  • Two of Suu Kyi’s lawyers, Jared Genser and Meghan Barron, write a powerful editorial for the Wall Street Journal that ends with this statement:

      Ms. Suu Kyi once said, “please use your liberty to promote ours.” We outside Burma have not served her well to date, but she and her people need us now more than ever.