•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   

Indonesia was quick to express disappointment on Tuesday over the sentencing of Aung San Suu Kyi to 18 more months of house arrest, saying it would jeopardize next year’s elections in Burma.

Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said the Indonesian government believed the sentence was intended to prevent Suu Kyi from participating in the elections.

“Therefore, it only proves once again that the election is likely not to be credible at all,” Faizasyah said.

Suu Kyi was ordered to remain under house arrest for 18 months, which means the opposition leader will remain in detention throughout the election period.

The court at Rangoon’s Insein prison sentenced her to three years imprisonment with hard labor for violating the terms of her house arrest in May, when she allowed an American intruder to remain in her home for two days.

However, Than Shwe, head of Burma’s ruling junta, later signed an order changing the sentence to 18 months under house arrest.

Suu Kyi has spent 14 of the last 20 years in detention, mostly under house arrest.

Faizasyah said the sentence was unfair because the regime had not imposed any punishment against police guarding Suu Kyi’s house for letting the American enter the compound. “Indonesia, as part of Asean, demands the release of Suu Kyi,” he said.

The British Ambassador to Indonesia, Martin Hatfull, also condemned the verdict, saying it was “outrageous” but not surprising.

“We will do everything we can to secure her release,” he said.

Hatfull said Burma had conducted a political trial by sentencing Suu Kyi to home arrest to prevent her from participating in the 2010 elections.

He said he expected the European Union would adopt economic sanctions targeting the Burmese regime as a consequence of its latest treatment of Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate.

“It’s clearly a corrupt regime,” he said.

Marzuki Darusman, a lawmaker from the House of Representatives Commission I, which oversees international relations, said the reduction of Suu Kyi’s sentence from hard labor was a sign that the junta was bowing, at least somewhat, to international pressure.

“They know they cannot impose such a harsh verdict under the monitoring of the international community,” Marzuki said.

“They realize that they need to gain international trust that their election would not be an orchestrated one,” he said.

However, such measures were unlikely to convince anyone in the international community that the election would be free and fair, he added.

Marzuki said he agreed with the Foreign Ministry that the sentence was intended to deter Suu Kyi from participating in the election and that the verdict was unfair since the police guarding Suu Kyi’s home were not punished.

“It does not adhere to human rights from any perspective,” he said.