On August 11th, the Insein Special Court found Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s democracy icon, guilty of violating the terms of her house arrest, and sentenced her to 3 years imprisonment and hard labor. However, after the judgment, an addendum was read by an officer from the Home Ministry Department reducing her sentence to 18 months house arrest.
The reprieve was granted by Senior General Than Shwe, the senior general of the Burmese State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), and is in accordance with the article 401; section 5 of Burmese law.
Senior General Than Shwe explained his decision to reduce the prisoner’s sentence because of her status as daughter of Burma’s independence leader General Aung San, who was assassinated in 1947, and to bring peace and tranquility to the state. According to his statement, the commutation was also handed down as an attempt to improve personal relations and so that her arrest should not be an obstacle for democracy.
The verdict does not guarantee a reduced sentence, rather it is contingent on her abiding by the “rules and regulations” of the commutation. While the rules and regulations were not clarified, failure to comply results in her being returned to prison.
The trial has carried on in fits and starts since Daw Ang San Suu Kyi's arrest on May 13th, after an American, John Yettaw, swam across Inya Lake to her walled compound. The much anticipated verdict has come after months of protest from the international community, describing her arrest and trail as being unjust and calling for her release. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has lived under house arrest for 14 of the past 20 years, and was due to be released mid May 2009.
To many the verdict has come as no surprise, and has been readily interpreted as an attempt by the military government to prevent Daw Aung Suu Kyi from any participation in the upcoming 2010 election.
Secretary General of the Committee Representing the People’s Parliament (CRPP) (CRPP), U Aye Tha Aung, explained in an interview with IMNA, “The verdict is not just according to the legal system….If the jury decided with the law, she was found no guilty and she has to be free."
He continued, "In 2003, after the government's running dogs, the members of the Union Solidarity and Development Association, USDA, tried to assassinate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi at Dipeyin, the SPDC again place her under house arrest…”
U Aye Tha Aung explained that it is not the will of the government to reduce her sentence, rather it is a form of judicial realpolitik, designed to fulfill the government’s own ends while attempting to appear generous and just in the eyes of the world. By returning her to house arrest, the government hopes to sow political discord amongst opposition and democracy groups in advance of the 2010 election.
"They [Military Government] dare not free her for any length of time before the 2010 election,” U Aye Tha Aung said. “She would keep speaking about and criticizing the [coming] election. That's why they found her guilty…"
Thus far, as reported by the New York Times, the international community has overwhelmingly condemned even the commuted sentence. However key members of ASEAN, the political network to which Burma belongs, have responded with varied reactions, from condemnation by the Philippines government, to refusal to comment by Thailand’s foreign minister.
