Rangoon - US Senator Jim Webb expressed gratitude Sunday to Burma's junta chief for honouring his request to free an American national who swam to the house-cum-prison of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on May 3, providing a pretext for both to be jailed.
Webb held talks with Burma's military leader Senior General Than Shwe on Saturday during which he requested the release of John William Yettaw, 54, sentenced to seven years in jail for swimming to Suu Kyi's family compound in Rangoon.
Yettaw was scheduled to accompany Webb on his privately chartered plane out of Rangoon on Sunday afternoon to Bangkok, sources confirmed.
The US senator, a Democrat from Virginia who is chairman of the US Senate's East Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee, also requested that Than Shwe release Suu Kyi, whom he met Saturday, but did appear to have secured her freedom.
"I am grateful to the Myanmar government for honouring these requests," said Webb, in a statement released on his personal website. "It is my hope that we can take advantage of these gestures as a way to begin laying a foundation of goodwill and confidence- building in the future." //DPA
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