In Burma, the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is set to go on trial Monday for an uninvited visit by a US citizen who swam across a lake to reach her home. The Burmese junta says John Yettaw spent two days in Suu Kyi’s home before he was captured as he made his way out. Suu Kyi’s attorneys say Yettaw ignored her pleas to leave and spent a night sleeping on a ground floor. On Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the charges.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: “We oppose the regime’s efforts to use this incident as a pretext to place further unjustified restrictions on her. And therefore we call on the Burmese authorities to release her immediately and unconditionally, along with her doctor and the more than 2,100 political prisoners.”
The trial appears to come as part of an effort by the junta to force Suu Kyi to give up her home. She has spent thirteen of the last nineteen years under house arrest.