Anthropology News • September 2009 PUBLIC AFFAIRS
The Lady and the “Wretched American”
Burma’s Trial of Aung San Suu Kyi
Monique Skidmore country empty-handed. The disregard for the of the state. Succession
U Canberra United Nations and the international commu- in the military regime is
nity more generally is a hallmark of the regime of at a critical juncture for
As night fell on May 4, 2009, a Missouri Senior General Than Shwe. Like other author- the ailing senior generals
man handed his room key to hotel staff and itarian regimes, this one impoverishes and and it is vital they have
announced that he would be staying with represses its captive population and is concerned the people’s great hope,
friends for the night. Early the next morning only with the survival and indeed prosperity of The Lady, in detention, in
he donned a pair of homemade flippers and the senior military echelons of the country. time for the elections. The
swam almost two kilometres across Inya Lake, A military dictatorship since 1962, Burma actions of the “wretched
before sneaking past security guards to enter will next year hold its second round of alleg- American” could not have
the home of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize edly democratic elections under military rule, come at a more oppor- Aung San Suu Kyi
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The 53-year-old as the State Peace and Development Committee tune time for the Burmese at the NGO Forum
John William Yettaw was arrested by Burmese steers the country toward an Orwellian style of Generals, or a less oppor- on Women, Beijing,
security personnel as he made his way back political process that it chillingly calls “disci- tune time for the future China in 1995. Photo
across the lake the following day. plined democracy.” These elections will cement of democracy and human courtesy US State
Department
This was not the first time the American the place of the military in Burma’s political rights in Burma.
national had violated the conditions of the house
arrest of the world’s most famous political pris-
oner. In November the previous year the security
detachment assigned to ensure Aung San Suu
Kyi’s house detention caught Yettaw as he left
her compound. Aiming guns at him they asked
him what he was doing there. On this second
visit the five armed guards threw stones at him
but did not block his entrance to the compound.
As a result of this intrusion, Suu Kyi was taken
to Burma’s notorious Insein prison. Criminal
Case No 47/2009 has been filed against her, in
addition to Yettaw and two women who live
in her compound. Suu Kyi, known throughout
Burma (Myanmar) as “The Lady,” is charged with
violating the terms of her house arrest and faces
up to five years in prison if convicted.
The criminal case moves at a glacial pace.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been imprisoned for 13
of the past 19 years and the Burmese population
are desperate to catch glimpses of her. Veteran
Burmese journalist Aung Hla Tun reported
that a group of female police officers “jumped
to their feet at the sight of Suu Kyi” as she
entered the courtroom, until “after a minute, A coalition of campaigning groups including the National League for Democracy (NLD), Burma Campaign
they sheepishly looked at each other and sat UK, and English PEN, protest outside the Burmese Embassy in London, England, on Aung San Suu Kyi’s 64th
down” (Reuters, May 20, 2009). Birthday, June 19, 2009. Photo courtesy English PEN (Flickr, CC)
During the trial in Yangon North District
Court, one of Suu Kyi’s lawyers described system in perpetuity. Aung San Suu Kyi’s period Monique Skidmore is a medical anthropologist
Yettaw as “that wretched American,” because of of detention was due to end on May 27. If she is and dean at the University of Canberra. She has
the powerful consequences of his actions. When sentenced to five years imprisonment, presum- conducted research in Burma since 1994 and is
asked why he had snuck into her house, he ably to be served under house arrest, then she the author of Karaoke Fascism: Burma and the
reportedly answered that “God sent him here to will be locked up while the regime conducts its Politics of Fear (2004) and editor (with Patricia
convey a message of imminent danger to the life multi-party elections. Lawrence) of Women and the Contested State
of Daw Suu unleashed by a terrorist outfit” and All military regimes must manufacture (2007), among other publications.
that “he was only here to warn us, as God told enemies to justify a large standing army, secret
him to and that he loves Burmese people and police, a legion of informers, and other accou- Shannon Speed, of the AAA Committee for
has respect for the Burmese police” (Democratic trements of authoritarian rule. The arrest of Human Rights, is the contributing editor of
Voice of Burma, May 28, 2009). John William Yettaw has given the State Peace Human Rights Forum and can be contacted at
sspeed@[Link].
HUMAN RIGHTS FORUM
Editor’s note: On August 11, 2009, Aung San
Two months after the arrests, United Nations and Development Committee another opportu- Suu Kyi was convicted and sentenced to three
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, travelled to nity to dust off its dilapidated soapbox and rail years of hard labor, commuted to 18 months of
the new capital at Naypyidaw in central Burma once more against “internal and external anti- house arrest. US Senator Jim Webb secured John
to arrange a meeting with Suu Kyi, but left the government elements” threatening the stability William Yettaw’s release on August 14.
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