Yangon (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Today is day four in the trial against Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, which is taking place behind closed doors in Yangon’s Insein prison. Yesterday the military junta allowed a group of ten journalists – five foreign, five local - access to proceedings as well as a group of foreign diplomats.
An official source in Burma explains that access to the trial was ‘only for one day’; a decision bent upon deflecting international criticism which has condemned the arrest of the “lady” and has demanded her immediate release.
Members of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the main opposition party, judge yesterday’s concessions to be a “conciliatory move” that will not lead to the trial being opened up tot h public. Win Tin underlined that “allowing journalists and diplomats access for one day does not mean the trial will be free and fair”.
Aung San Suu Kyi faces up to five years in jail if convicted of charges of breaching her house arrest stemming from an incident earlier this month in which an American man swam to her lakeside house. Myanmar's ruling generals have kept the Nobel Laureate in jail or under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years- the terms of which were due to expire on May 27th. Many analysts and opposition members believe the episode is a “perfectly fabricated frame-up” by the regime to exclude the leader from the democratic battle of the 2010 political elections.