Charges may derail activist's release in Myanmar

YANGON, Myanmar — Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was charged Thursday with breaking the terms of her house arrest just two weeks before she was to go free, a move seen as an attempt by the military junta to silence its chief opponent ahead of next year's election.

The charges follow a mysterious visit to her home by John William Yettaw, 53, of Falcon, Mo., who swam across a lake and sneaked into her home seeking food and a place to rest.

Suu Kyi, who was scheduled to be freed May 27 after six years of house arrest, now faces up to five years in prison if convicted of violating the terms of her detention, said lawyer Hla Myo Myint.

The trial of the Nobel Peace laureate is scheduled to start Monday at a special court at Yangon's notorious Insein Prison, where she was arraigned and then held Thursday.

"It is nothing more than a political ploy to hoodwink the international community so that it can keep (Suu Kyi) under lock and key while the military maneuvers its way to election victory on 2010," said a statement from the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma.

The coalition describes itself as the country's government-in-exile and has links to Suu Kyi's party. Burma is the old name for Myanmar and preferred by the military regime's opponents.

Foreign leaders, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, condemned the charges and called for her release.

"If the 2010 elections are to have any semblance of credibility, she and all political prisoners must be freed to participate," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.

In the past the junta — which regards Suu Kyi as the biggest threat to its rule — has found other reasons to extend her periods of house arrest, bending the letter of the law. Suu Kyi, 63, has already spent more than 13 of the last 19 years in detention without trial for her nonviolent promotion of democracy, despite international pressure for her release.

Early Thursday morning, armed police drove Suu Kyi and two women who live with her to Insein Prison. The women, assistants loyal to her political party who have lived with her since she was detained in 2003, were charged with the same offense, lawyers said.

The junta scheduled elections as part of its so-called "roadmap to democracy," but the effort is widely perceived as a guise for continued military control.