Aung San Suu Kyi and John William Yettaw

How Yettaw's stunt could hurt Burmese democracy campaigner Suu Kyi

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.

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