The condemnation of the former Burmese leader aroused a wave of international protests.
by
The sentence is reduced, but the objective of the military remains unchanged. A few hours after the verdict condemning Aung San Suu Kyi to four years in prison, the leader of the Juntus, General Min Aung Hlaing, publicly announced a partial amnesty, bringing the sentence to two years. The former Burmese leader, 76, owned in an unknown place since the coup of the 1 February, was accused of incentive to public disorders and violation of the health rules related to the COVID-19.
This gesture, obviously calculated, also concerns former President Win Myint, who had been sentenced to the same sentence. “It was an attempt to show up magnanimous, it fell flat,” Note Richard Horsey, Analyst of the International Crisis Group, cited by the France-Presse agency. The reduction of difficulty does not change anything on the merits, since Aung San Suu Kyi remains prevented from campaigning for the next elections, announced by the junta from August 2023. In addition, the former Burmese leader faces. to other charges, for facts that might argue up to a hundred years of prison in total. The next verdict is expected on December 14th.
“China has the cards in hands”
Paradoxically, the verdict of the Naypyidaw Tribunal, the capital Burmese, has helped to restore the aura of the Nobel Peace Prize, which is largely ecorned abroad for its lack of compassion to the Rohingya Muslims, victims. atrocities from the Burmese army. The leader of the American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, thus denounced an “unfair” conviction, believing that his sentence was “an affront to democracy and justice in Burma”. Michelle Bachelet, High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations, has on his side criticized “a trial rigged with a secret procedure before a military-controlled court” and a verdict that “closes a door to political dialogue”. “Aung San Suu Kyi has devoted his life to fight for freedom and democracy in Burma and held this difficult role for more than thirty years,” said Norwegian Nobel Committee, “worried” for the one who was his winner in 1991 .
The international pressure has nevertheless unlikely to change the situation, relieves David Camroux, honorary researcher at the Center for International Studies of Sciences-Po. “It’s China that has most cards in hand, note. And the Western countries have not taken the step by recognizing the government in exile [the Government of National Unity of Burma Formed on April 16, 2021 by personalities who fled the country]. On the other hand, this verdict is a new clumsiness of the junta. Aung San Suu Kyi is, for them, much more dangerous in detention than freedom. Young people who manifest in his favor Want to go far beyond the recovery of the 2008 Constitution, they call the army squarely to return to his barracks … “