Word: burma
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...next year. Yettaw is also scheduled to stand trial and could spend six years behind bars. People who know the Vietnam veteran say he's a gentle man with an odd streak, but one of many furious Suu Kyi supporters calls him a "wretched American." (See pictures of Burma after Cyclone Nargis...
...remarkable irony that an unknown American, who presumably wanted to champion Suu Kyi's democratic cause, was the catalyst for her latest troubles. But so go the unintended consequences of political inexperience. "Burma's pro-democracy movement has long been an attraction for fantasists, fanatics and adventure tourists," writes Aung Zaw, editor of the respected online news magazine the Irrawaddy, sho covers Burma from neighboring Thailand. "Did John William Yettaw consider the consequences [of his swim]? Did he think for a minute that he would do more harm than good? Probably...
...lawyers branded Yettaw a "wretched American." Inside the country, it can be easy to spot the foreign idealists masquerading as, say, tourists or teachers, who have made it their mission to change Burma. They whisper about regime change and seethe with political indignation. They talk about signature campaigns or the latest effort to get foreign parliamentarians to condemn the Burmese regime's odious behavior...
...impulse to want to rid Burma of its cruel government is understandable. But, so far, the outcome of this imported idealism has been nothing but failure. Since seizing power in 1962, the military regime has only tightened its grip on power. And when foreigners are sentenced to jail in Burma, they have a far better chance of being released early or treated favorably than a Burmese political dissident does. As Aung Zaw noted in the Irrawaddy, two British activists who were convicted for staging separate political protests in Burma in 1999 were both released early after serving only a fraction...
Read about Burma's ethnic minorities...