New Delhi (MIzzima) - A coalition group of the Burmese Opposition on Tuesday accused the ruling Burmese military junta of plotting to justify charging and putting on trial Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The Forum for Democracy in Burma, a coalition group comprising several individual activists and groups, said the junta has been using the intrusion of an American man to the home of the pro-democracy leader as a pretext to charge her and put her on trial. The regime is continuing to plot to justify its actions.
Dr. Naing Aung, General Secretary of the FDB said, the junta is apprehensive that its actions might back fire and therefore, is coming up with excuses to justify its move.
In a statement on Tuesday, the FDB said the junta is raising a bogey and creating alarm among the people by saying that it had recovered a time-bomb planted on a train in Naypyidaw by the FDB and the All Burma Students Democratic Fronts (ABSDF).
The FDB said such accusations without proof are only aimed at creating alarm and injecting a sense of fear among the people regarding opposition groups including the FDB and the ABSDF.
“The news was spread only to create a sense of fear among the people and underline that if the people start grouping and begin any kind of movement, there could be explosions in the crowd,” Dr. Naing Aung said in the statement.
The FDB also said the junta’s mouthpiece newspapers have published only a part of the testimony in court of John William Yettaw, the American who sneaked into Aung San Suu Kyi’s house.
On May 27, Yettaw and two of Aung San Suu Kyi’s party mates who live with her testified in court. And on May 28, the New Light of Myanmar, though it ran the full question and answer session of the two women, summed up the testimony of Yettaw leaving out vital portions.
Yettaw on May 27 had testified that he had visited pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s residence twice – once in November 2008 and the second time on May 3. He said, during each of his visits, he had met security personnel, who did not trouble him despite being aware of his visits to house number 54 on University Avenue in Rangoon.
The junta’s paper, however, conveniently avoided publishing these statements but only ran his testimony of his visits to Aung San Suu Kyi’s house. The FDB said this was aimed at misinforming the public and justify the junta’s actions.
Meanwhile, a pro-junta blogger on the website, www.tharkinwe.com, claimed that Yettaw had a nexus with Opposition groups, including the FDB in exile and ran photographs of Yettaw being present at a FDB meeting in Mea Sot in Thailand.
Dr. Naing Aung, however, denied the allegations saying the pictures were lifted from the April issue of the Forum’s journal, and morphed.
The FDB said, the photographs were of Mr. Phil Thornton, an Australian journalist, discussing journalism at the office of the Assistant Association for Political Prisoners in Burma (AAPP-B) in Mea Sot.
The junta’s Deputy Defence Minister told a regional security meeting in Singapore on Sunday, that the trial against Aung San Suu Kyi is in keeping with domestic laws and since it is an internal affair other countries should not meddle.
Reporting by Salai Pi Pi, writing by Mungpi
