Myanmar Foreign Minister says Suu Kyi trial "not political"
By Martin Petty
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Myanmar's foreign minister defended the trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday, insisting the widely condemned case was not a political or human rights issue.
In the first public defence of the trial by an official, Nyan Win accused the international community of meddling in the former Burma's affairs and said outrage over the case was overdone.
"The case of Aung San Suu Kyi and John Yettaw was an internal legal issue," he told a meeting of Southeast Asian and European foreign ministers in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.
"It's not political. It's not a human rights issue, so we don't accept the pressure and interference from abroad."
The United Nations, the EU, the United States and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is a member, have repeatedly called for Suu Kyi's release since the trial began in a Yangon prison on May 18.
The 63-year-old faces up to five years in jail if found guilty of violating her house arrest by allowing Yettaw, an American who swam to her home on May, to stay for two days.
Her two female assistants and Yettaw are also on trial.
U.S. President Barrack Obama has called it a "show trial" based on "spurious" charges. Critics say it is aimed at keeping Suu Kyi in detention during the junta's promised elections next year, derided by the West as a ploy to entrench military power.
REBUKES NEIGHBOURS
Nyan Win also took a swipe at ASEAN, which deviated from its non-interference policy last week by warning the trial threatened Myanmar's "honour and credibility".
"Some countries in our region and others have strong interest in the case of John Yettaw and Aung San Suu Kyi," he said.
"But their interest in the case has been found over-proportionate, overlooking the principals of non interference in internal affairs and should not have happened".
The 10-member regional group has tried for a decade to "engage" the generals and coax them down the road of reform. It has not worked, but neither have sanctions imposed by the West.
In Singapore, the government rejected calls from some of lawmakers to expel Myanmar from the group.
"We believe that if isolating Myanmar could have resolved the situation we would have done so, but we believe that engaging Myanmar would bring more accountability from Myanmar," Zainal Abidin Rasheed, Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, told parliament.
Suu Kyi, one of more than 2,000 political prisoners in Myanmar, has been incarcerated for more than 13 of the past 19 years, mostly at her lakeside home.
Although her house arrest was lifted this week, Suu Kyi remains in detention awaiting a verdict that could come as early as Friday.
Nyan Win said Suu Kyi's detention and trial were necessary to protect the state and people from "those seeking to commit subversive acts".
"The case of an individual should not overshadow our important democratisation process that has reached it's final critical stage in Myanmar," Nyan Win said of the regime's seven-stage roadmap to democracy.
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU, said the trial was "a big step backwards" for Myanmar and he called for restrictions on all political parties to be lifted.
"All the groups and minorities must be involved in an inclusive manner in elections and this process involves the release of Aung San Suu Kyi," he said.
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