Suu Kyi's detention splits East and West

International responses to Tuesday's sentencing of Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's pro-democracy leader, to an extended period of house arrest have split on Asian and Western lines. The leaders of Britain, France and the United States all strongly condemned the one-and-a-half-year sentence as a travesty of justice and the trial as a sham. United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon added his voice to renewed calls for her immediate release. Most Asian countries - apart from the Philippines and Indonesia - have been more muted in their response, labeling the decision more diplomatically as "a mistake". Suu Kyi's detention is certain to increase divisions between the West and Asia on how to encourage genuine political reform in military run Myanmar. At least that is what the junta's top general Than Shwe appears to be counting on, as he moves forward with plans to introduce "guided democracy", including tentative multi-party elections scheduled for later next year. Suu Kyi was handed an additional 18 months under house arrest after being convicted of violating state security laws. Her alleged crime: to offer food and shelter to an uninvited US citizen, John Yettaw, who secretly swam to enter her lakeside residence in the old capital of Yangon. Suu Kyi denied abetting Yettaw, though she always expected to be convicted, her lawyers told Asia Times Online.