New Delhi (Mizzima) - Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s international lawyer has said the United Nations Security Council should convene an emergency meeting if the military regime convicts her in the current trial, which he said is “a pretext to continue detaining her”.
Jared Genser, president of US-based Freedom Now, said, “The time for outrage statements and condemnation is over and the time for action is now,” and called on the international community to act on Burma and not to fail the Burmese people once again.
Though the charges against the Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate are “patently ridiculous,” Genser said there are indications that the junta will sentence her to a prison term of another three years, if not more.
“But if she is convicted, I will be calling for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council…by convicting her the junta will be violating the demands of the Security Council in the 2007 presidential statement,” said Genser.
On Thursday, authorities continued the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi for the fourth day in a special court in Insein Prison. But the trial was again conducted behind closed doors, with no diplomats or journalists allowed inside.
Authorities on Wednesday for the first time allowed 30 diplomats and 10 journalists to witness the proceedings of the court.
“I went to the prison gates this morning again, but the authorities did not allow any of us to enter,” a correspondent for a foreign news agency who went to the prison told Mizzima on Thursday.
Nyan Win, one of the defense counsels and the NLD spokesperson, said four witnesses were produced on Thursday and the session lasted longer than usual as a witness showed a video clip confiscated from American John William Yettaw.
He added that the court has fixed the next hearing for Friday, May 22, saying “it is rather speedy. And looks like the trial will be over before long.”
Genser said the reason for conducting the trial in a speedy manner could be to avoid more international pressure and to close the case as soon as possible.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent more than 13 of the past 19 years under house arrest, will complete six years of her latest house arrest term in the last week of May. Burma’s military regime last year argued with international and domestic lawyers that Burmese law allows for the detention of a person for up to six years and extended her term for another year.
But Genser said her house arrest term already expired a year ago and that the junta has no choice but to release her.
Along with Genser, most opposition groups as well as Burma observers believe that the charges and current trial are a pretext to continue detaining her and to exclude her from the 2010 election, the fifth step of the junta’s seven-point roadmap to democracy.
But her absence in the 2010 election would only be further proof of the junta’s intention of rigging the election to legitimize their rule, critics said.
On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a congressional hearing that the 2010 election cannot be legitimate without the participation of Aung San Suu Kyi.
But Genser said the 2010 election is already fundamentally flawed as the 2008 constitution, which is the basis for the election, is already flawed.
“It is already determined that the election in 2010 will not be free and fair…and will enshrine the military’s role forever. And her [Aung San Suu Kyi’s] conviction would only reinforce that,” Genser concluded.
