Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyers have told the BBC’s Burmese Service they plan to appeal after she was found guilty on Tuesday of breaking the terms of her house arrest that condemnation from nations including the UK, France and the US. A key group of Burma’s South East Asian neighbours has issued a rare statement condemning the conviction. In the past the Asean group has been criticised for not taking a tougher stance on Burma’s human rights record. Read more here
Ai Weiwei, a high-profile Chinese government critic has said he and 11 others were detained by police in a hotel today to prevent them from attending the trial of an activist Tan Zuoren who investigated the deaths of thousands of schoolchildren in last year’s earthquake, where they were due to give defence evidence. He said he had been confined to his room by the police and that he did not know when he would be released. Weiwei, who was a consultant for the Beijing Olympics Bird’s Nest stadium, said police in the southwestern city of Chengdu also assaulted him and another supporter who tried to attend. Read more here
Aung San Suu Kyi could be the Burmese regime’s greatest ally. The sentence today signals a missed opportunity as well as a travesty of justice, says Maung Zarni (more…)
The Ethiopian government has tried to force private Kenyan broadcaster Nation Television (NTV) to drop a four-part exclusive report on separatist rebels in southern Ethiopia. NTV aired the first two parts of the programme which led Ethiopia’s ambassador to Kenya to accuse the Nation Media Group of giving a platform to a terrorist organization. Read more here