MYANMAR's surprise trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has dashed already slim chances that President Barack Obama's administration would ease US sanctions against the military government of the Southeast Asian country. As Washington was reviewing policy toward the former Burma, the junta that has ruled the country since 1962 put Suu Kyi on trial on Monday, accusing the Nobel Peace laureate of breaking the terms of her house arrest because an American man swam to her lakeside home and was allowed inside. The case, in which Suu Kyi could be jailed for up to five years if found guilty, drew international condemnation and a statement of concern from the 15-member UN Security Council. Critics of Myanmar's military rulers view the charges against the charismatic Suu Kyi, whose house arrest was scheduled to end on May 27, as trumped-up to keep her in detention through elections that the junta plans in 2010. In Washington, officials and experts said the trial would only add to voices calling for more and tougher sanctions aimed at pressing Myanmar to release Suu Kyi and other political prisoners and begin a dialogue with the democratic opposition. “We are obviously watching this trial very closely and it will clearly be factored into the overall review,” said a US government official who spoke on condition he not be named. Washington's policy review was “nearing completion” and no action was likely during Suu Kyi's trial, the official said. Remarks by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in February that the Obama administration was looking at new ways to sway Myanmar's entrenched rulers was interpreted by some observers as hinting at a shift away from sanctions. Battery of sanctions But on May 15 Obama informed Congress that he was renewing the battery of US sanctions built up over the course of years to try to press Myanmar's government into political rapprochement with Suu Kyi's opposition group. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a 1990 election only to be denied power, and she has been in prison or under house arrest for more than 13 of the past 19 years. “A significant loosening of the sanctions was never really in the cards,” said Mike Green, an Asia expert nominated by the Bush administration as special coordinator for Myanmar. “There should be no doubt now, because the junta's behavior leaves very few options for loosening sanctions,” said Green, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. A second Obama administration official said that even before Suu Kyi's trial, the US government inter-agency discussions featured a search “for opportunities for more sanctions” and new ways to squeeze the junta. Clinton's comments about looking for new tools may have been aimed at trying to work more closely with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a 10-member group that includes Myanmar and often resists sanctions. “What the secretary had to say when she was in the region was this realization that as you review sanctions and you look for more, and you constantly check and recheck, you quickly can bump up against the limitations of sanctions,” said the second US official. The key is designing sanctions that put pressure on the junta – freezing leaders' bank accounts or halting weapons sales – without adding to the misery of ordinary people in what is already one of Asia's poorest countries. “Targeted sanctions on individual officials in the regime don't hurt the people and have some broader support in the world,” said Lex Rieffel of the Brookings Institution.
