opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi said she hoped for "better days" Wednesday as the ruling junta unexpectedly allowed diplomats and reporters to attend her trial.
The 63-year-old looked healthy as she thanked foreign envoys for coming to the Insein Prison in her first public comments since she was charged last week with breaching her house arrest, an AFP reporter inside the court said.
"Thank you very much for coming and for your support," Aung San Suu Kyi, wearing pink Burmese traditional dress, said inside the courtroom at the end of the third day of the trial.
"I can't meet you one by one, but I hope to meet you all in better days," she added.
Aung San Suu Kyi then went for a meeting with the ambassadors of Thailand, Singapore and Russia at a so-called "guest house" inside the prison compound.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner faces up to five years in jail if convicted of charges of breaching her house arrest stemming from an incident earlier this month in which an American man, John Yettaw, swam to her lakeside house.
The surprise move by the military regime to allow some diplomats and media access to the trial followed intense international pressure and a scathing condemnation by Myanmar's normally placid Southeast Asian neighbours.
Authorities held the first two days of hearings behind closed doors and had turned away European diplomats on Monday, but on Wednesday said representatives from all 30 foreign embassies would be allowed in.
The regime also allowed five journalists from foreign news organisations and the same number from local organisations to report on the hearing.
Asked to explain the regime's apparent change of heart, a western diplomat said that following international pressure on the ruling generals, particularly by ASEAN, "one has to ask if all these pressures played a role."
The Southeast Asian bloc, which has faced trouble with Myanmar since admitting the country in 1997, warned on Tuesday that the regime's "honour and credibility" were at stake over Aung San Suu Kyi's trial.
Critics say the junta has trumped up the charges to keep Aung San Suu Kyi locked up during elections due next year, and also to beat a May 27 deadline when her latest six-year period of detention expires.
The trial on Wednesday heard from only one police witness about the arrest of Yettaw, who used a pair of homemade flippers to swim across the lake before spending two days at Aung San Suu Kyi's residence.
“With the eyes of the international community on Myanmar at present, the honor and credibility of the government of the Union of Myanmar are at stake,” said the message, released by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Myanmar is a member.
In Washington, a State Department spokesman, Ian Kelly, said the charges against Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi were unjustified and demanded her release, along with that of an estimated 2,100 other political prisoners. Last week, in response to her arrest, the United States extended harsh economic sanctions against the ruling military junta, although the American government had said it was reviewing the effectiveness of this policy.
Other condemnation came from around the world, including from the United Nations and the European Union.
Nine Nobel Peace Prize laureates also have condemned the arrest of Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the prize in 1991. “We are outraged by the deplorable actions of the military junta against Suu Kyi and strongly encourage challenging this obvious harassment of our fellow Nobel laureate,” the prize winners said in a statement.
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