US 'fool' at center of Suu Kyi furor

Source: AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The middle-aged American blamed for landing Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in jail is said to be a Mormon and Vietnam War veteran with a quixotic world view.

The little that is known about John William Yettaw, 53, suggests the Missouri native thought he was helping Aung San Suu Kyi's cause by swimming to her lakeside home and staying uninvited.

"We have to blame him," the Nobel laureate campaigner's chief lawyer Kyi Win said, after Myanmar's military junta charged Aung San Suu Kyi Thursday with breaching the terms of her house arrest.

"He is a fool," the lawyer said.

The opposition newspaper Irrawady described Yettaw as a "stalker" and the latest in a long line of naive Western protestors who have done more harm than good to Myanmar's beleaguered democracy movement.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5guq674xs7DWBQNqiAI4vwf1D-jCQ

I don't support, condone, or defend locking up human rights activists, FGM, slavery, keeping girls from going to school, etc.

I also don't think my actions as an outsider will ever do more good than harm in trying to stop them.

:crazy:

the logic around here sometimes baffles me.

As someone said in the original news thread about her being charged, the junta probably would have found some other charge for her, but it's not good to hand it to them on a plate.

it's all good. :hi:

Lets see

Combat ended in Jan 1973 that's 36 years ago

53 minus 36 = 17 kind of young for combat

I think they've spotted the unlikelihood too. The age could be wrong too, of course.

i'm 53 too and don't know anyone my age who qualifies as a vietnam vet.

A guard, tech or some kind of support role? News outlets tend to throw around the word veteran too much.

Anyway, the article says that a son of his died a few years ago. The death of a child could certainly push someone into erratic behavior.

AP

By MARIA SUDEKUM FISHER – 57 minutes ago

FALCON, Mo. (AP) — John Yettaw left his 10-year-old and three teenagers in southern Missouri, visited his former wife in California last month and told her he had to go to Asia to work on a psychology paper about forgiveness. That was bad enough for his ex-wife, but it got worse.

Yettaw's unexplained swim last week across a Myanmar lake to the home of opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi has prompted new charges against her less than two weeks before her yearslong detention had been due to end. The 53-year-old Yettaw faces charges of his own in Myanmar, and anger from some who know him.

"I put it this way," said his ex-wife, Yvonne Yettaw, "he's got four children, and he went out of the country and left the children with friends."

=snip=

"I don't know if this was cathartic," she said from her home in Palm Springs, Calif. "But he wanted to return to southeast Asia. He wanted to take some documents and some information because he's doing research on a paper on forgiveness for trauma."

She added, "I was just told that he needed to go." He had been scheduled to return June 24.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iyn3pb2TSDq8IJh9OJV4XP7CBr-gD98669900

FALCON, Missouri (CNN) -- Tucked away in the woods of central Missouri, obscured by tall trees and broken-down cars, is the mobile home of the man at the center of a political scandal rocking the nation of Myanmar.

Journalists have been flocking to John Yettaw's modest residence in the unincorporated community of Falcon for insight into the man who allegedly swam across a lake and sneaked into the home of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi while she was under house arrest.

=snip=

Conversations with Yettaw's neighbors conjured a blurry image of a man known as a friendly intellect to some and an eccentric recluse to others, deepening the mystery of who he is and what he was doing in Myanmar.

"John was always a friendly guy, to me he was," neighbor Mike Assell said. "He was just a very intelligent man to talk to, he was very literate, he had a good vocabulary and you could talk to him and he understood what you were talking about... he was well-read."


Officials in Myanmar say this self-portrait
was found on John Yettaw's digital camera.

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/05/14/missouri.man.myanmar/?iref=mpstoryview

as many other Mormons did.

HOW did he get into a place presumably well-guarded, and WHAT was he planning to do when he got there? I'm not even going to bother asking about the WHY...

Source: CNN

From Talia Kayali


(CNN) -- Three charges have been filed against a Missouri man who is accused of swimming across a lake and sneaking into the home of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi while she was under house arrest, a U.S. Embassy official said Friday.

A hearing for John Yettaw was held Friday at Insein Prison near Yangon, where Suu Kyi also is being held. The official said Yettaw is charged with immigration violations, trespassing into a restrictive area and contributing to Suu Kyi violating the conditions of her house arrest.

Yettaw's trial is scheduled for Monday.

On Thursday, a spokesman for Suu Kyi's political party said Yettaw was charged with two criminal counts: entering the country illegally and staying at a resident's home without government permission. Both charges would carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

It was not immediately known why there was a discrepancy in the charges.

Yettaw allegedly stayed overnight in the lakeside home, violating the conditions of Suu Kyi's house arrest, according to the country's ruling military junta, which rarely grants her visitors. The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate was subsequently detained. She also faces trial Monday.

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/05/15/myanmar.swimmer/