The Morning Express, 13 Aug 2009
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.
Singapore is also dismissive of the West's sanctions approach. "What can we do? Can we use force? Can we use trade sanctions? The Europeans and the Americans have done their worst, it has not worked. Can we criticize? Yes we can. Should we engage? Some people said yes, some people said no," Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo told journalists "We decided on balance that good engagement is leverage, that we can have some influence over the process. That's how it is."
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