Word: junta
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...lakeside residence May 3. While the Nobel Peace laureate reportedly urged 53-year-old John Yettaw of Falcon, Mo., to leave, she is charged with violating the terms of her detention and faces up to five years in prison. Analysts call the trial a ploy by the junta to keep Suu Kyi behind bars during next year's elections; her arrest came days before her scheduled release. While Suu Kyi, 63, appeared composed and vibrant at the trial, British ambassador Mark Canning saw little hope for her release: "This is a story where the conclusion is already scripted...
...Burma, but not the sort she wants. On a trip to Asia in February, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters that the White House would review its policy toward Burma. My friend fears that the Obama Administration might move toward some kind of compromise with the junta, possibly even lifting sanctions. "You have the whole community of engagers coming out of the woodwork now," she says. "They see an opportunity; they haven't had one in years...
...With other countries in Southeast Asia, too, the new Administration has shown itself willing to question years of received wisdom. While Laura Bush condemned the Burmese junta, the Obama Administration has held relatively high-level talks with the country's leadership - in March, Stephen Blake, the State Department's director of Southeast Asian affairs, met Foreign Minister Nyan Win in Naypyidaw. Condoleezza Rice would skip ASEAN's Regional Forum, and the Bush Administration refused to sign ASEAN's Treaty of Amity and Cooperation. The treaty is pretty innocuous - it merely pledges signatories to uphold a zone of peace in Southeast...
There's something about Burma. Zimbabwe, Laos, North Korea, Sudan, Uzbekistan - all these countries are plagued by repressive rulers. But none of these places grips the popular imagination like this isolated nation in the heartland of Asia. With its thuggish ruling junta and defiant, beautiful opposition leader, Burma inspires unparalleled international sympathy and the passions of do-gooders. Only the Dalai Lama rivals fellow Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi when it comes to dissident magnetism - and, even so, the Tibetan monk has not languished under house arrest for much of the past two decades...
...conviction will effectively sideline the Lady from lending her voice to nationwide elections that the junta has announced for next year. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won by a landslide the country's last elections back in 1990, but the junta ignored the results. This time around, they have rigged the electoral system with arcane regulations that deliberately exclude Suu Kyi from participating. Other rules specify that top posts must be reserved for members of the military, thereby ensuring the junta's longevity. Nevertheless, many in Burma had hoped that Suu Kyi, in whatever limited form, might...