Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi refuses to take stand on trial

Security is tight in Rangoon as trial against Suu Kyi started Monday.//epa

The first day of the trial, held amid tight security at a special court at Insein Prison, adjourned at 1:45 pm after hearing the testimony of one witness, officials said. It will resume on Tuesday at 10:30 am 

The Nobel laureate reportedly refused at first to enter the court room or to acknowledge her case when the court abbreviated her name to Suu Kyi, leaving out the Aung San which is the name of her famous father, an independence hero. 

"If you cannot call me by my right name, I will not move," she reportedly told the court. Court officials then relented, using her full name, and she entered the court room.

Suu Kyi's lawyer Kyi Win asked that the trial be open to the public, but his request was rejected.

The defendants in the case include Suu Kyi; her two house helpers, Khin Khin Win and Win Ma Ma; and American John William Yettaw. US diplomats were allowed to attend the trial but journalists and the public were not admitted to the jail which was under tight security.  

Roads leading to Insein were blocked to traffic and the public Monday morning by barbed-wire barriers to prevent public protests against the trial, which could result in another five-year jail sentence for Suu Kyi, who has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention.

More than 100 members of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the opposition party led by Suu Kyi, gathered outside the prison in a show of support for their leader.

Authorities arrested several NLD members who tried to push through the barricades, witnesses said.

They were prevented from getting closer to the prison by hundreds of riot police, firefighters and civilian militia members guarding the jail, which is notorious for torturing political prisoners and for its poor health conditions, leading it to be dubbed "the HIV/Aids factory" by former inmates.

Suu Kyi, 63, would plead not guilty to the charges of breaking the terms of her house detention, which was due to expire May 27, Kyi Win said.

Authorities on Friday rejected a request for another prominent Myanmar lawyer, Aung Thein, to join Suu Kyi's defence team.

The trial was expected to take several days, if not weeks, because prosecutors have called more than 22 witnesses, sources said.

It was widely expected that Suu Kyi, the recipient of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, would be found guilty.

"Given the junta's record to date, it is highly doubtful justice will be served," said Jared Genser, an expert on Suu Kyi's case at Freedom Now, a US-based advocacy group for political prisoners.

Police have accused Suu Kyi and her two live-in servants of breaking the State Protection Act for allowing Yettaw, 53, to swim to Suu Kyi's Yangon compound on May 3 and stay there until the morning of May 6, when he was arrested while swimming in Inya Lake away from the house.

Prosecutors were expected to argue that Yettaw, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, had first illegally entered Suu Kyi's house on November 30, when he passed the church's Book of Mormon to her servants for Suu Kyi to read.

Although Suu Kyi's doctor informed authorities of Yettaw's uninvited visit last year, no action was taken against the man and he was allowed another tourist visa to re-enter the country this month, sources said. 

The junta's critics accused it of using Yettaw as a pretext to keep Suu Kyi in jail during a politically sensitive period leading up to a general election planned for next year. 

Suu Kyi leads the NLD, which won the 1990 general election by a landslide but has been blocked from taking power by Burma's ruling military junta for the past 19 years.  

If found guilty of the latest charges, she was likely to be kept at a special guesthouse in Insein Prison.

Suu Kyi's trial and likely conviction have ignited widespread protests from the world community, including US President Barack Obama, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the European Union and Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva in neighbouring Thailand.

"The real question is how the world will react," Freedom Now's Gensar said. "Will it do more than simply condemn the junta's actions?"

There have been calls on the UN Security Council to call an emergency meeting on Burma in light of the new charge against Suu Kyi.