A US citizen jailed for swimming to the house of Burma (Myanmar) democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been handed over to US officials and is set to fly out of the country today accompanied by a visiting American senator who secured his release.
A US Embassy car retrieved John Yettaw from the prison where he has been held since early May after he was arrested while swimming away from Suu Kyi's house.
US senator Jim Webb said today he had asked Burma to free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and let her take part in politics during talks that secured the release of Mr Yettaw who was jailed for visiting her.
The Democratic senator landed in Bangkok, capital of neighbouring Thailand, with John Yettaw, whose swim to Suu Kyi's home in May led to her renewed detention after authorities said his uninvited stay had breached the terms of her house arrest.
He had had met junta leader Than Shwe at the remote new capital of Naypyidaw on yesterday and then flown to Rangoon (Yangon) to meet Suu Kyi at a guest house.
Suu Kyi was sentenced last week to another 18 months under house arrest, and Yettaw's action is widely seen as having given the junta a pretext to keep Suu Kyi out of politics until after an election due next year. Mr Webb said he had raised the issue.
"I'm hopeful as the months move forward they will take a look," he said.
"With the scrutiny of the outside world judging their government very largely through how they are treating Aung San Suu Kyi, it's to their advantage that she's allowed to participate in the political process."
"What I said to the leaders of Myanmar is that I believe that it will be impossible for the rest of the world to believe the elections were free and fair if she was not released." He said the United States stood ready to help Burma.
Mr Yettaw was not at the news conference. He went immediately to hospital after landing in Bangkok, where he walked from the plane to a waiting vehicle with a steadying hand from officials. He spent several days in hospital this month in Rangoon.
Mr Yettaw had been sentenced to seven years' hard labour on three charges, including immigration offences.
"I believe what happened was regrettable," Senator Webb said. "He was trying to help. He's not a mean-spirited human being."
Mr Webb was allowed by the military authorities to speak with Suu Kyi for about 45 minutes yesterday, after meeting members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) and other political parties who had been invited to Naypyidaw by the government.
Some in Burma remained bitter at the treatment of Suu Kyi.
"The most tangible outcome of his visit is the release of John Yettaw, who caused the mess," said Thakhin Chan Tun, a former ambassador to North Korea.
"However, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who is completely innocent in this incident, is still under house arrest." Suu Kyi has led the fight for democracy in the former Burma and has spent 14 of the past 20 years in detention.
US President Barack Obama said her conviction violated universal principles of human rights and called for her release.
In May, Mr Obama extended a ban on US investment in Burma imposed in 1997 because of political repression. He has also renewed sanctions on imports from the country.
Before Suu Kyi's trial ended, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held out the prospect of better relations but made that conditional, among other things, on the release of Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.
Mr Webb, chairman of a Senate subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific, is the first member of Congress to travel in an official capacity to Burma in more than a decade and the first senior American politician to meet junta leader Than Shwe.
A former Navy Secretary and a Vietnam War veteran who speaks Vietnamese, Mr Webb favours a policy of engagement with the junta.
The United States has for years backed sanctions to persuade the generals to release political prisoners, to little effect.
Many Asian countries, including the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) of which Myanmar is a member, argue it is better to talk and trade with the resource-rich country, which occupies a strategic position between China and India.
Thailand is asking its fellow ASEAN members to back a request to Burma to pardon Suu Kyi.
Reuters