Suu Kyi in House Arrest

The media reports that Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Price laureate and opposition leader in Burma, has been sentenced to 18 months of house arrest after helping an American man who swam two miles across a lake to her house in the beginning of May.

Sui Kyi was supposed to be set free May 27th, having spent 14 of the past 20 years imprisoned, being considered an enemy of the military junta in the country. Now she has been found guilty in violating the terms of her house arrest.

64 year old Suu Kyi was first sentenced to three years of hard labour. Suddenly reporters were invited into the court room to witness the greatness of Than Shwe, the leader of the junta, who had changed the sentence of three years into 18 months of house arrest.

This, of course, conveniently prevents Suu Kyi from participating in the Burmese elections in 2010.


Rarely has the line been drawn so clearly between good and evil, right and wrong in politics. Unlike Iran where they recently held elections and imprisoned the opposition after the votes had been cast, Burma avoids arguments over the results by simply imprisoning the opposition before the election takes place.

Maybe we should do the same in Norway in preparation for the election next month - if nothing else it would cut the lies in half...