John Yettaw, American Jailed in Burma, Released to US Officials
THE SUNDAY TIMES: The American man jailed in Yangon for swimming to the house of Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has flown out of Burma after being released to US officials earlier today.

Authorities in Burma handed over jailed American citizen John Yettaw to US embassy officials earlier today, ahead of his departure from the country with US senator Jim Webb.

The US embassy said Mr Yettaw is now headed to Bangkok, Thailand, on a military plane with Senator Webb.

The senator secured his release on Saturday with a plea to Myanmar's ruling junta.

Mr Webb thanked the government for the release of Mr Yettaw at a brief news conference just prior to their departure this morning. Mr Yettaw was sentenced last week to seven years at hard labour for breaking the terms of Ms Suu Kyi's house arrest in early May.

Senator Webb met Myanmar’s top military leader Than Shwe and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday, and announced the release of the American who was jailed for visiting the Nobel peace laureate.

Mr Webb, a Democrat who is chairman of a Senate subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific, is the first member of Congress to travel in an official capacity to Myanmar in more than a decade and is also believed to be the first senior American official ever to meet Than Shwe. >>> | Sunday, August 16, 2009

Aung San Suu Kyi Found Guilty - Sentence Will Keep Her Out of Election
TIMES ONLINE: The Burmese democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been sentenced to a further 18 months of house arrest for receiving an eccentric American wellwisher in the home where she was being detained.

The court in Rangoon’s Insein Prison sentenced Ms Suu Kyi to three years hard labour, but it was immediately commuted to a year and a half under house arrest by the leader of Burma’s military dictatorship, Senior General Than Shwe. John Yettaw, the American whose late-night swim to her lakeside home led to her trial, received a seven-year sentence with hard labour.

The sentence will take Ms Suu Kyi out of the running for the elections which the Burmese junta has promised to hold next year, and will confirm many of its opponents in their suspicion that the charges against her were politically motivated to eliminate the symbol of the country’s long suppressed democracy movement.

Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won an overwhelming victory in the last election in 1990, a result that was never accepted by the junta.

The verdict had been delayed without explanation for 11 days, and there had been suspicions that it might be postponed again after Mr Yettaw was admitted to hospital last week after suffering epileptic seizures.

According to her lawyers, Ms Suu Kyi had been anticipating a guilty verdict, and had assembled a library of books to see her through a long prison sentence. Burma has more than 2,000 political prisoners and almost all received no more than perfunctory consideration from the courts, which predictably yield to the wishes of the military dictatorship. >>> Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Editor | Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Suu Kyi: Sarkozy appelle à des sanctions
leJDD.fr: Nicolas Sarkozy condamne le verdict "brutal et injuste", qui touche l'opposante birmane Aung San Suu Kyi, condamné mardi à 18 mois de prison. "Les autorités birmanes confirment par cette décision inique leur choix d'ignorer les messages pressants de la communauté internationale", estime l'Élysée dans un communiqué publié mardi. Le chef de l'Etat appelle l'Union européenne à réagir rapidement "par l'adoption de nouvelles sanctions dirigées contre le régime birman, qui doivent viser tout particulièrement les ressources dont il profite directement dans le domaine de l'exploitation du bois et des rubis", poursuit le texte. [Source: leJDD.fr] Mardi 11 Août 2009

Aung San Suu Kyi à nouveau emprisonnée
Crédits photo: Google Images
LEPARISIEN.fr: L'opposante birmane et prix Nobel de la paix Aung San Suu Kyi a été une nouvelle fois mise en prison par la junte birmane qui lui reproche d'avoir accueilli chez elle un citoyen américain en violation des règles de son assignation à résidence.

Aung San Suu Kyi a été placée en détention en compagnie de deux employées de maison ce jeudi à la suite de la visite d'un Américain John Yettaw qui avait traversé un lac à la nage pour se rendre chez elle.

Le vétéran de la guerre du Vietnam âgé de 53 ans était resté deux jours.

Le Prix Nobel de la Paix, Aung San Suu Kyi sera jugée le 18 mai, a indiqué un avocat. Les mesures de sécurité avaient été considérablement renforcées à l'aube autour de la résidence de la principale opposante à la junte militaire birmane et qui a été privée de liberté pendant la majeure partie des 19 dernières années. >>> | Jeudi 14 Mai 2009