Yangon - Myanmar's junta is pushing through the controversial trial of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi at unusual speed, one of Suu Kyi's lawyers said Tuesday, on the second day of the court case. "I can definitely say the government is speeding up the case to finish quickly," Nyan Win, a member of Suu Kyi's defence team, said.
"Maybe it will be finished by next week," said Nyan Win, who is also the spokesman for the opposition National League for Democracy (NLP) party.
On Tuesday, prosecutors presented five witnesses in the court cases against opposition leader Suu Kyi, her two house helpers, Khin Khin Win and Win Ma Ma, and American John William Yettaw at Yangon's Insein Prison.
The trial will resume on Wednesday at 10 am (0330 GMT).
Roadblocks and hundreds of security personnel have been posted around Insein Prison to prevent possible protests.
Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is accused of breaking the terms of her house detention by permitting Yettaw, 53, to swim to her home-cum-prison on Yangon's Inya Lake on May 3 and spend three nights there before swimming away.
Yettaw, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, faces several charges, including immigration violations for visiting a prisoner while on a tourist visa and municipal laws for swimming illegally in Inya Lake, state media reported.
Prosecutors said Yettaw had first illegally entered Suu Kyi's house on November 30, when he passed his church's Book of Mormon to her servants for Suu Kyi to read.
Although Suu Kyi's doctor informed authorities of Yettaw's uninvited visit last year, no action was taken against the man and he was allowed another tourist visa to re-enter the country this month, sources said.
The junta's critics accused it of using Yettaw as a pretext to keep Suu Kyi in jail during a politically sensitive period leading up to a general election planned for next year.
Suu Kyi is the leader of the NLP opposition party, which won the 1990 general election by a landslide but has been blocked from power by Myanmar's junta for the past 19 years. Suu Kyi has spent 13 of those years under house arrest.
The new trial of Suu Kyi, whose most recent six-year house detention sentence was due to expire May 27, has sparked a chorus of protests from world leaders and even statements of concern from its close regional allies.
Thailand, in its position as chair of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), expressed the group's "grave concern" about Suu Kyi's trial, Thai officials said Tuesday.
"The government of the Union of Myanmar, as a responsible member of ASEAN, has the responsibility to protect and promote human rights," Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said.
The statement was released after a meeting of senior officials from ASEAN's 10 member countries on Phuket island, 500 kilometres south of Bangkok, Thai Foreign Ministry officials said.
ASEAN has previously asked Myanmar's ruling military junta to free Suu Kyi.
"With the eyes of the international community on Myanmar at present, the honour and the credibility of the government of the Union of Myanmar are at stake," the ASEAN statement cautioned.
