Yangon, May 18
Myanmar’s pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and an American man who sneaked into her lakeside home went on trial behind closed doors inside a notorious prison compound here today.

Heavily armed police put up roadblocks on the streets leading to the Insean Prison near Yangon.

About 100 supporters of Suu Kyi waited outside the prison, notorious for incarceration and torture of political prisoners, Kyodo News Agency reported.

Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who has been kept under house arrest since 2003, was taken from her home to the prison on Thursday in relation to an unauthorised visit by an American citizen, John Yettaw.

Yettaw is charged with immigration violations and trespassing into a restrictive area, charges that carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Suu Kyi, 63, was scheduled to be released from house arrest later this month.

The timing of Suu Kyi’s detention raised suspicion among her supporters, who said the government’s action was an excuse to extend her house arrest.

“This is the cunning plan of the regime to put Aung San Suu Kyi in continuous detention beyond the six years allowed by the law they used to justify the detention of her,” said the US Campaign for Burma, a pro-democracy group fighting for her release.

Meanwhile, Suu Kyi’s lawyer, U Kyi Win, blamed her prison detention on Yettaw.

Local media said Yettaw, a 53-year-old former military serviceman from Falcon, Missouri, swam almost two miles across Inya Lake on May 3 and sneaked into Suu Kyi’s home. The police maintains a round-the-clock presence outside the house. And swimming in the lake is forbidden.

U Kyi Win said Yettaw arrived at his client’s house that day and that she asked him to leave immediately. U Kyi Win said Yettaw refused to leave, first saying he didn’t want to swim in daylight for fear of being captured, and later blaming leg cramps. Yettaw finally left on May 5.

The defence will argue that Yettaw entered Suu Kyi’s home due to poor government security, said Jared Genser, a Washington DC-based lawyer who is one of the attorneys on her defence team.

“Frankly, she does not believe she did any offence,” Genser was quoted as saying by CNN.

Suu Kyi has been the face of Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement and the focus of a global campaign to free her. Her National League for Democracy party won over 80 per cent of the legislative seats in 1990. However, she was disqualified from serving because of her house arrest, and the military junta dismissed the results. — PTI

Claiming success in the ongoing military operation in Swat, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said here on Monday that it would continue until all its objectives are achieved.

“The operation against the terrorists is progressing very successfully and those who destroyed the peace of the nation are fleeing in disguise,” Gilani said while making opening remarks at an all-parties conference he had convened to galvanise political support for the military operation.

He said troops would remain in the region until peace is ensured and all the displaced people return home but emphasized that military operation could not provide lasting solution to the challenges faced by the nation.

“Unless political forces do not step into resolving the situation, there is no guarantee to a sustainable solution (against terrorism and extremism),” he said.

Gilani said the government always adopted the policy of dialogue, deterrence and development in tribal areas, for which it faced criticism from political forces for ‘following the foreign directives.’ ‘I want to make it clear that the focus of our policies is only Pakistan, and nothing else. We are engaged in ensuring peace and prosperity of the country, with due patience,’ he said.

Among those attending the APC include leaders of major political parties, including PML(N)’s Nawaz Sharif, JUI’s Fazlur Rehman, MQM’s Farooq Sattar, ANP’s Asfandyar Wali Khan, Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Imran Khan, Awami Muslim League’s Sheikh Rashid Ahmad, PML(Q)’s Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, PPP(Sherpao’s) Aftab Ahmad Sherpao and several others.

During the break Shaikh Rashid said no political leader opposed the operation but some did express serious reservations about it various aspects and also criticized the government for tardy response to the humanitarian crisis of colossal exodus of people of the region because of Taliban’s activities and army’s shelling.

Gilani said the army action became a necessity when militants treated the innocent people with violence and brutality, and made their lives unbearable.

He mentioned numerous cases, including the flogging of a girl, the desecration of sufi shrines, the forcing of people to follow the Taliban’s interpretation of Islam and the training of youngsters to become terrorists, as the main reasons that encouraged the government to call the army in the area.

New York, May 18
Pakistan is producing more bomb grade uranium for new generation of nuclear weapons, even while being racked by insurgency, raising questions on Capitol Hill whether billions of dollars in proposed US military aid could be diverted to its nuclear programme.

The fears among the members of the US Congress have been raised by a confidential briefing by top military commander who has told them that Pakistan was rapidly adding to its nuclear weaponry.

Islamabad’s moves to expand rapidly its nuclear weaponry, the New York Times said might complicate the US administration’s moves to speed up military and economic aid to Pakistan.

The paper said Pakistan’s efforts to build new nuclear weapons had been a source of concern to Washington, because it was coming at a time when the US was increasingly focused on trying to assure that Islamabad’s 80 to 100 nuclear bombs and missiles don’t fall into the hands of terrorists groups.

US felt that Pakistan’s moves to multiply its nuclear weapons was also ill-timed as it came when US President Barack Obama had called for a passage of treaty that would bar nations from producing more fissile material.

The Obama administration had conveyed to the Congress that all military aid for Pakistan was to help boost its capability to fight terrorism and not to be diverted to any other strategic programmes, the paper said.

Washington had earmarked a $100-million dollar aid for Islamabad’s classified programme to secure its weapons and fissile material from seizure by the Taliban or the Al-Qaida or militants with “inside loyalties”.

But Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen’s assertions before the house armed forces committee that the Pakistan nuclear arsenal was increasing had caused discomfort in the Capitol Hill.

The Congressional briefings had taken place as the Congress was considering proposals for a $3-billion aid over the next five years to train and equip the Pakistan army and para-military formations in counter terrorism. — PTI

London, May 18
The most senior official in Britain’s lower house of parliament apologised today for an expenses scandal among lawmakers that has prompted growing calls for an early general election.

“Please allow me to say to the men and women of the United Kingdom that we have let you down very badly indeed,” said Speaker Michael Martin.

Sidestepping calls to step down over his handling of the crisis, Martin said he would meet party leaders within the next 48 hours to discuss reforms to an allowances system which has seen lawmakers claim for everything from biscuits to cleaning work on their swimming pools.

“We must all accept blame and to the extent that I have contributed to the situation, I am profoundly sorry,” Martin said.

Earlier, Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for “root and branch” reform to defuse a scandal that has damaged the main political parties.

Opposition leader David Cameron, whose Conservative party is well ahead in the polls, told Britons to campaign for an early general election.

An election is due by mid-2010 but Brown is expected to resist pressure to go to the polls with the country in its deepest recession since World War II.

Brown said he had been “angered and appalled” by days of disclosures about lawmakers’ questionable and sometimes lavish expenses.

“There’s got to be root and branch reform,” Brown said. “I’m hopeful that we can get a consensus in this country about what is needed to be done to have a complete clean-up of the political system,” he told Sky News.

Support for Brown’s Labour party, in power since 1997, has been hit particularly hard by the revelations over MPs’ allowances and public anger could favour fringe parties in local and European elections on June 4.

Cameron stole a march on Brown by cracking down on abuses in his own party. Brown has put his faith in slow-moving parliamentary reforms.

Speaking at a campaign launch in northern England, Cameron said he was launching a drive for a general election, the second leader of a major party to follow this route.

“We are turning the campaign we had planned for these elections into the campaign Britain now needs: a campaign for a general election, to be held as soon as possible after the 4th of June,” he said.

“From tomorrow I want Conservative candidates and activists right across the country to start collecting signatures for a petition demanding that Gordon Brown calls a general election.” — Reuters