U.S. Sen. Jim Webb won the release Saturday of an American prisoner convicted in Myanmar and sentenced to seven years in prison for swimming secretly to the residence of detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the senator's office said.
Yettaw, 53, is to be officially deported Sunday, when he will fly with Webb on a military aircraft to Bangkok, according to a statement from Webb's office.
U.S. Sen. Jim Webb won the release Saturday of an American prisoner convicted in Myanmar and sentenced to seven years in prison for swimming secretly to the residence of detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the senator's office said.
Yettaw, 53, is to be officially deported Sunday, when he will fly with Webb on a military aircraft to Bangkok, according to a statement from Webb's office.
Evidently, the military junta running Myanmar (Burma) has decided to make life for Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years, even worse. Today was the second day of her trial. The New York Times reports:
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was personally informed of her continued imprisonment by officials from the Home Ministry who entered her villa prior to the announcement, the official said.
snip
The extension was issued despite a Myanmar law that stipulates no one can be held longer than five years without being released or put on trial.
The junta faced a deadline to extend Suu Kyi's house arrest for another year or release her. Members of her National League for Democracy were marching from the party's headquarters to her home when riot police shoved the group into a truck.
It was not immediately clear where the truck was headed or exactly how many people were detained.
According to this YouTube, "Dust In The Wind" has been adapted as a song of protest by Burmese refugees living along the country's border (it's YouTube, so take it with the appropriate grain of salt):
Enough is enough. The NY Times reports that the Myanmar government has yet again extended Aung San Suu Kyi's dentention:
Myanmar's military government has renewed the detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
A government official said that Suu Kyi's detention was officially extended Tuesday afternoon. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
It was not immediately clear if the extension was for six months or one year. The extension became official when an official drove to her house to inform her of it, he said.
Suu Kyi has been in detention continuously since May 2003, most of the time under house arrest.
She has been confined without trial for more than 12 of the past 18 years.
The military regime in Burma is still holding up to 2,500 people in prisons and labour camps around the country, and continues to arrest suspected dissidents, the British government claimed yesterday.
The ethnic conflict between the regime and the Karen minority is expected to worsen.
The U.S. and Europe have imposed economic sanctions, and the U.N. waved an angry finger.
However...
However, the sanctions do not include the oil and gas sector, and Amnesty International yesterday said the junta was still receiving military equipment from China, Russia, Ukraine, and India.
The regime claims to have released all but about 500 prisoners.
However...
A British diplomat estimates they're still holding at least four or five times that many.
"There are substantial night-time raids going on. They have scooped up hundreds of people," the diplomat said.
The prisoners are being sent to many locations, around the country. They are expected to spend years in prison. Some are expected to spend decades in prison.
The UN Security Council met Friday in New York to receive a report from Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari.
Speaking in diplomatic but clear terms, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Gambari denounced the situation in Myanmar warning that sanctions could follow if Myanmar failed to respond quickly and appropriately, urging the Junta to meet with political opposition. Speaking in guardedly optimistic terms, Gambari indicated the Junta was prepared to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi.
It is 9.15 p.m. on Tuesday evening in Yangon, the time of day when the stranglehold of fear settles across the city. The first heavily armed soldiers take position outside the few restaurants that still serve foreigners. Curfew starts at 10 p.m. After that, anyone who is still out on the streets is risking their lives.
The foreigners can't find a car to take them from the restaurant. Someone goes out to find some sort of transport. Outside, a young man in shabby clothes emerges from the shadows to speak to the foreigners.
"The repression is continuing every night. When there are no more witnesses, they drive through the suburbs at night and kill the people."
He wants to get his story out, and he does so quickly. If he's caught, he'll be imprisoned or killed. He's from South Okalapa, a huge, terribly poor suburb. Most of the rebel monks were from there. The military junta crushed the rebellion in the city, then went to the source.
Around midnight, the military rolled into town. There's a special unit of gangsters and ex-cons- for special purposes.
They surrounded a monastery on Weiza Yandar Street. All the roughly 200 monks living there were forced to stand in a row and the security forces beat their heads against a brick wall. When they were all covered in blood and lay moaning on the ground, they were thrown into a truck and taken away. "We are crying for our monks," said the man, and then he was gone.
The huge monastery in the city is empty and quiet. Several thousand monks are gone. Disappeared.
"We are assuming that the number of victims among the monks and protesters last week goes well into the hundreds," says one diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Some 800 monks are captive at the infamous Insein Prison. They have no contact with the world.
(I)f the authorities don't provide international organizations with access to the camps soon, it will be a matter of time before there are further deaths.
The British ambassador hopes condemnation from ASEAN will help. He hopes U.N. efforts will help. He hopes the Chinese will help.
The article in Spiegel Online ends with these chilling words:
Editor's Note: For security reasons we are not naming our correspondents in Burma.
The blogosphere is frequently full of cries about the creeping fascism of the Bush Administration. There are claims that we are all in imminent danger. There are comparisons to the world's most brutal regimes. The Bush Administration is a viper's den of war criminals, imperialists, and End Times theocrats.
Reform Immigration -
March on Washington
