DEMOCRACY LEADER FACES MYANMAR TRIAL VERDICT

PRISON LOOMS FOR AUNG SAN SUU KYI
AS BURMA SHOW TRIAL DRAWS TO A CLOSE

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — After several delays, the trial of Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi entered its final phase Friday as her lawyer delivered closing arguments under tight security at Yangon's Insein Prison. A day after democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi murmured in court that the verdict in her trial was already "painfully obvious," Myanmar's junta-run state media warned Wednesday against making predictions of a guilty verdict in the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, even as it suggested that the democracy leader had broken the law. On Tuesday, lawyers gave their closing arguments in the high-profile proceedings against Suu Kyi, who is accused of violating the terms of her house arrest by harboring an American who swam uninvited to her lakeside home and stayed for two days.

The 64-year-old Nobel Peace laureate faces a jail term of five years over a bizarre incident in which an American man, named Yettaw, swam uninvited to her lakeside house. Yettaw is charged as an accomplice in violating the terms of Suu Kyi's house arrest and could also be sent to prison for five years. He has pleaded not guilty, and explained in court his aim had been to warn Suu Kyi because he feared she would be assassinated. She is widely expected to be convicted, although there has been speculation she may serve her sentence under house arrest rather than in jail.

Suu Kyi emerged as a democracy icon during a popular uprising in 1988 that the military — which has ruled since 1962 — brutally suppressed. Her party won national elections in 1990, but Myanmar's generals refused to relinquish power. Critics say the trial is part of a plan to keep Aung San Suu Kyi in jail during next year's election. Myanmar's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said she expects the outcome of her trial will be "painfully obvious" when judges deliver their verdict on Friday. International pressure to release Suu Kyi has been mounting. At a meeting of southeast Asian nations in Thailand, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke on Suu Kyi's behalf.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Some of the living entities are relatively happy in better conditions of life, whereas others are in distressed conditions of life. But factually, none of them are actually happy in material conditional life. No one can be happy in prison life, although one may be a first-class prisoner and another a third-class prisoner. The intelligent person should not try to be promoted from third-class prison life to first-class prison life, but should try to be released from the prison altogether. One may be promoted to first-class prisoner, but the same first-class prisoner is again degraded to a third-class prisoner in the next term. One should try to be free from prison life and go back home, back to Godhead. That is the real goal for all types of living entities.

Srila A.C. BV Swami Prabhupada:
"The Srimad Bhagavatam - Purport in Canto 2 - Chapter 10 - Verses 37-40"