Burma News (5.20.09)

by Danny Fisher

[This has been updated as of 8:25 p.m. PST on 5.20.09.]

Here are today’s headlines about Burma and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s ongoing military trial:

  • The Agence France-Presse is reporting that many observers believe the junta is speeding through their trial of Suu Kyi:

      Five witnesses gave evidence Tuesday to the closed-door trial at the notorious Insein prison, including four police officers who said they had arrested American John Yettaw after he spent two days at her lakeside house.

      “It indicates that they are trying to finish as soon as possible” by calling many witnesses, Nyan Win, the spokesman for Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, told reporters.

      “If it continues like this, we guess it can be finished by next week.”

      Nyan Win said the prosecution was expected to call 22 witnesses, all but one of them policemen. The senior officer who filed the original complaint against Aung San Suu Kyi testified on Monday.

  • The Democratic Voice of Burma reports that the UN’s human rights envoy to Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana, has spoken out, saying:

      The message to the government is first that this new file has to be dismissed immediately, because there are no grounds at all. She cannot be accused of any crime at all. The responsibility regarding the security and the conditions of the her house arrest lie in the government. She was under government custody, therefore the government is responsible for the security conditions.

  • The BBC reports on the criticisms of Suu Kyi’s trial by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
  • In addition, the BBC also tries to answer the question, “Why is the junta afraid of Aung San Suu Kyi?”
  • The Associated Press reports that Mayor Bertrand Delanoe has called for Suu Kyi’s release in Paris.
  • The editors of the San Francisco Chronicle offer a blunt take on the situation:

      The drumhead justice should shock the world’s power players, yet it doesn’t in every case. China and India, which both want the dirt-poor nation’s oil and gas, have said little. Strong condemnation has come only from a handful of neighbors plus the European Union and the United States.

      Until new leverage or negotiating tactics are found, Burma will remain an outlaw country. Washington’s wish to talk, instead of confront foes, is off to a bad start.

  • The editors of USA Today and the New York Times also sound off for Suu Kyi.
  • The Guardian reports on the illustrated book The Burma Chronicles.
  • Lastly, A.O. Scott gives Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country a glowing review in the pages of the New York Times.