Word: junta
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...before a court in Rangoon - alas, in vain. On Aug. 11, the iconic and much admired democracy leader was found guilty of violating the terms of her house arrest, a verdict that everyone, including Suu Kyi herself, had predicted. Also predictable was the apparent imperviousness of the ruling Burmese junta to the global outrage it generated by putting her under house arrest for another 18 months just as her last spell in detention was expiring. U.S. President Barack Obama called it "unjust." British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called it "monstrous." Out of sheer frustration, some Burmese will turn...
...concerned about retribution. Just look at the military-drafted constitution. "Approved" by a sham referendum in the wake of last year's Cyclone Nargis, it reserves for the military a quarter of seats in the new parliament after elections scheduled to be held next year. Tellingly, it also grants junta officials immunity from prosecution. "This clause won't protect them from international prosecution," says Mark Farmaner, director of the advocacy group Burma Campaign U.K., "but it shows they're worried about...
...democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi. The inspirational leader of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), Suu Kyi was sentenced to 18 months of house arrest on Tuesday after a bizarre case in which an American swam to her lakeside villa in commercial capital Rangoon. According to the junta's judiciary logic, the appearance of an uninvited guest at the Nobel Peace Prize laureate's home meant that she had contravened the terms of her previous house arrest. (Suu Kyi has been locked up for 14 years of the past two decades.) This month's verdict ensures that...
...Although Suu Kyi's sentencing met with the usual condemnation from Western powers, the United Nations on Thursday issued a relatively muted statement expressing "serious concern" for the 64-year-old's continued confinement. A previous draft that castigated the junta more strenuously did not survive opposition from Russia and China, which are generally loathe to comment on human-rights issues in other countries...
...tenure, Washington strengthened economic sanctions against the Burmese regime, which has maintained an iron grip over the country since 1962, and ruled out any talk of engagement. But earlier this year Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged that such trade barriers weren't having an effect on the junta's behavior. (Shortly after the Suu Kyi verdict, the European Union announced the tightening of its own sanctions against the regime.) In the same way that it has re-engaged with North Korea in recent weeks, so, too, may the Obama Administration pursue a less isolationist stance toward Burma...