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By Jonathan Head
BBC News, Bangkok




The trial of the Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is resuming after a six week break.Ms Suu Kyi has been charged with breaking the terms of her house arrest after an American well-wisher swam to her home in Rangoon across a lake.

Last week the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon visited Burma to make a personal appeal for all political prisoners to be freed.

But the military government would not allow him even to meet Ms Suu Kyi.

Having seen off the UN Secretary General last week without making any significant concessions, Burma's military rulers can now get on with the business of neutralising their main political opponent.

The trial of Aung San Suu Kyi has been repeatedly delayed over the last six weeks, while the UN negotiated the terms of Ban Ki-moon's visit.

Ms Suu Kyi's lawyer now expects it to conclude quickly, with a guilty verdict and continued incarceration for the opposition leader a near-certainty.

That would mean she and her party will play no role in the election planned by the military government next year - so that election is unlikely to be recognised as legitimate by much of the world.

Still, the thinking of the senior generals shut off in their fortress-like capital is hard to fathom - there is always the possibility of a surprise decision.


What happens in Burma now depends entirely on what they do - 20 years of sustained international pressure has achieved almost nothing.