More news about Daw Aung Sun Suu Kyi

May 8, 2009U.S. Man Held After Swim to Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate’s Home By MARKMcDONALD HONG KONG — An American man has been arrested for swimming across a lake tosneak into the home of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Daw Aung San SuuKyi,a U.S. diplomat said Thursday from Yangon. Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader who has been under house arrestfor 13 of the past 19 years, is rarely allowed visitors byMyanmar’sruling military junta. The street to her lakeside home in the Universitysection of Yangon, the commercial capital formerly known as Rangoon, isblocked by police barricades and checkpoints. The state-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper said the man reportedly confessed toswimming across Inya Lake on Sunday evening. He was arrested early Wednesdayas he was swimming back. It was not known for certain if the man had actually gotten into Mrs. AungSan Suu Kyi’s house — one of several buildings in her residential compound —or if he had contacted her. The newspaper identified the man as John William Yeattaw and said theauthorities had confiscated an American passport, a black backpack, a pairof pliers, a camera and two $100 bills. There were no immediately verifiable details about the man’s identity or hispurpose, but the American diplomat, Richard Mei, confirmed Thursday eveningthat the man had been arrested and that American consular officials weretrying to see him. Foreign visitors, even senior diplomats, are not given permission to visitMrs. Aung San Suu Kyi at home. In February, she was allowed to leave herresidence to meet briefly with Ibrahim Gambari, the UnitedNationsspecialenvoy to Myanmar, at a government guest house. Her current term of house arrest began in May 2003 after her motorcade,traveling near the northern town of Depayin, was attacked by a mob -- withdozens of reported fatalities -- in what some analysts believe was anassassination attempt. Her detention is due to end later this month,although annual extensions of her house arrest have become routine. Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, 63, was first detained in 1989. She won the NobelPeace Prize in 1991. -- Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com