Envoy says Suu Kyi in good spirits

BANGKOK, May 20 (UPI) -- Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, on trial in military-ruled Myanmar where she remains under house arrest, was reported in good spirits by a British diplomat.

"She looked extremely alert, extremely in charge of the situation, in good spirits, in good humor at the end. She was very much in charge of her defense team," Mark Canning, Britain's envoy to Myanmar, told CNN after attending the third day of her trial, which critics contend is an attempt by the military junta to extend her house arrest expiring this month.

Canning was one of 20 diplomats and 10 journalists allowed by the junta to attend the one-hour long trial Wednesday, CNN said.

Canning told CNN authorities did not permit Suu Kyi, 63, leader of the country's democracy movement, to meet individually with the diplomats. However, she called out to them in the courtroom saying, "Thank you for coming and your support. I hope to meet you in better days."

While welcoming the access to the courtroom, which was given after much international pressure, Canning said, "it's no substitute to addressing the real issue: the fact that she should not be facing this trial, she should not be facing house arrest."

Those opposing her detention include five of Suu Kyi's fellow Nobel laureates who, in a letter to the United Nations' secretary-general, called her trial a "mockery," CNN reported.

Suu Kyi is being tried inside a prison compound near Yangon amid tight security on charges she violated the terms of her house arrest.

She has been under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years. She faces another five years in prison if convicted.

She is on trial with America John Yettaw, who is charged with violating the conditions of her house arrest. Yettaw was arrested this month, accused of swimming across a lake behind Suu Kyi's home and staying there for two days.