Burma lashes out at Thailand over Suu Kyi

(Bangkok Post) -Burma lashed out at Thailand on Sunday for interfering in its internal affairs after the government called for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Burma said the statement last wBack to exile? Suu Kyi under house arrest.eek by the Foreign Miinstry "deviated from the practice of Asean," under which countries supposedly must not criticise other members.

"It is tantamount to interfering in Myanmar's internal affairs," said the Burmese statement, printed by the mouthpiece media. Independent reporting is banned in Burma.

The government appealed to the Burmese junta to release Mrs Suu Kyi, because the show trial at Insein prison in Rangoon threatens that country's "honour and credibility''.

It urged "humane treatment" for Mrs Suu Kyi and reminded the junta that it had ignored the group's previous calls for her release from detention. It said, however, that Thailand held fast to its policy of engagement with the military government.

Foreign Minister Nyan Win said last week Suu Kyi's trial "will proceed fairly according to the law." Diplomats who were given a brief glimpse of the trial inside Insein prison said it appeared scripted.

The trial resumes on Monday. "I have no guilt as I didn't commit any crime," she told the court.

Mrs Suu Kyi formally pleaded innocent on Friday, and was locked in her cell over the weekend.

Suu Kyi's lawyers will submit a list of defence witnesses on Monday, and they expected the trial to run for two more weeks.
She is charged with harbouring an American intruder, John Yettaw, who swam to her house on the banks of Inya Lake last month and stayed overnight. If Mrs Suu Kyi is found guilty, the junta will conveniently keep her locked up. Her term of house arrest is running out.

She has spent more than 13 of the past 19 years in detention, most of those years at her home under police guard, with her phone line cut and visitors restricted. (Agencies)