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John W Yettaw
American’s Obsession has Severe Repercussions for Suu Kyi

He was called a fool and accused of being both a CIA spy and a pawn of the Burmese junta. At the end of the day, John William Yettaw was probably no more than a well-intentioned but delusional individual who had a premonition of Suu Kyi’s assassination and took it upon himself to save her.

John W. Yettaw

The 53-year-old former Vietnam War veteran devised a half-baked plan to rescue the Nobel Peace Prize winner by swimming across Inya Lake in Rangoon to her home and smuggling her out disguised in Muslim robes and sunglasses.

On the night of May 2, wearing handmade flippers and carrying a backpack and a plastic bottle as a floating device, the would-be James Bond swam across the lake to Suu Kyi’s house, defying the mocking calls of security guards. Arriving exhausted at her front door, the asthmatic, diabetic American begged Suu Kyi’s house companions to shelter him until he recovered. Suu Kyi insisted that he swim back the following night, but he was caught by security guards on the lake at 5 a.m.

What would have been considered a case of stalking in most countries turned into a farcical national security issue in Burma, with Suu Kyi put on trial for hosting an unregistered foreigner at her home while Yettaw was charged with immigration offences and breaking a sanitation law by swimming in the lake.

For her involuntary part in the drama, Suu Kyi’s house arrest was extended by 18 months. Yettaw was sentenced to seven years in prison, but was soon released after intervention by a US senator.

Yettaw returned to his home in Missouri and has said he will write a book.

Jim Webb
A Swashbuckling US Senator

US Sen. Jim Webb’s visit to Burma in August could have come out of a novel—one written by the senator, in fact.

Sen. Jim Webb (Photo: AFP)

US-Burma relations had been largely non-existent since the US first imposed economic sanctions in 1996. His brief foray into personal diplomacy (carefully backed by the Obama administration) sprang from his conviction that the US needed a “new formula” of engagement across Southeast Asia.

The swashbuckling, novel-writing senator’s visit to Burma included meetings with Snr-Gen Than Shwe and Aung San Suu Kyi. A rapid succession of US-Burma talks involving junta ministers unfolded largely behind the scenes at the UN, a neutral ground for the reclusive regime.

Webb, an ex-Marine Corps officer in Vietnam, complained that he was stuck with an “anti-sanctions” label.

“I never said to lift sanctions immediately. What I want to achieve is to create an environment where sanctions can be lifted,” he said shortly after his return, which included the repatriation of John W Yettaw, the US citizen sentenced to seven years imprisonment for intruding into Suu Kyi’s lakeside compound.

There’s no denying that Webb’s personal initiative played a role in leading to the current US-Burma direct talks. His two-day visit to Burma was brief and dramatic—the hallmarks of good fiction played out in real politics.