Aung San Suu Kyi and John William Yettaw

So much for the hope Aung San Suu Kyi would soon be free, said Maev Kennedy in Britain’s The Guardian. The Burmese democracy activist, who has spent 13 of the last 20 years under house arrest, was due to be released May 27, but she was arrested for violating the terms of her confinement after an American, John William Yettaw, swam to her villa. “Everyone is very angry with this wretched American,” Suu Kyi’s chief lawyer said.

There’s no one to blame for this travesty but “the brute military junta,” said Swaraaj Chauhan in The Moderate Voice. It has already locked up Suu Kyi for most of the last two decades “without trial for her nonviolent campaign to restore democracy in Burma.” This is just an attempt to further traumatize the ailing, 63-year-old Nobel laureate.

Officials in Myanmar, also known as Burma, accused Suu Kyi of encouraging Yettaw to break the law, said Reuters’ Aung Hla Tun in Yahoo News, but opposition leaders say the ruling junta just wants Suu Kyi “sidelined ahead of elections in 2010.” Suu Kyi’s main lawyer, Kyi Win, said John William Yettaw—who is also under arrest—was told to leave Suu Kyi's home, but refused, saying he was exhausted after his one-mile swim.

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