Yangon (AsiaNews) – “The reasons behind the arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi’s personal doctor and the detention of an American citizen who visited her, remain shrouded in doubt, what is certain is that both episodes are linked the imminent expiry of her stay of house arrest”. This is how a local source commented on this latest twist to AsiaNews describing the charges as “perfect fabrications” by the military regime “to keep the Dear Lady under house arrest”, despite her seriously deteriorating health conditions.
“On May 27th –the source continues – her house arrest empire. The government is seeking any pretext to justify prolonging the detention”, completely ignoring the fact that her health conditions “are not good: she is very weak and has difficulty eating”. The Nobel Peace Prize winner is dehydrated, suffers from low blood pressure and is receiving nutrition through a feeding tube. Moreover the military junta have arrested her personal doctor Tim Myo Win, one of the few authorised to meet her.
Win, was detained for questioning by the authorities after a US national, 53 year old John Willian Yeatta was arrested for allegedly sneaking into her closely guarded home. The American confessed that he swam 2km across Inya Lake to Suu Kyi's compound and "secretly entered the house". He was arrested while swimming back. “This episode –underlines the AsiaNews source – is shrouded in doubt. The government is due to make a statement on the issue soon”.
The US embassy has been asking for access to the arrested man, but it has been consistently denied.
Aung San Suu Kyi is the symbol that represents Myanmar’s long list of political detainees, made up of Buddhist monks, opposition party NDL members and Generation 88 exponents. Today Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), an NGO based in Thailand, released a report denouncing that “over 350 activists have been sentenced since October last year and the majority of them have been transferred to remote jails away from their families”. The are “systematically tortured, denied medical treatment and face decades long sentences”. In Burma’s prisons there are 127 political prisoners who are in “precarious health conditions, 19 of whom need immediate care”. Medicine only pass in exchange for bribes, a “widespread and endemic” system of corruption.
