U.S. Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) on Saturday secured the release of American prisoner John Yettaw during a two-day visit to Myanmar.
Yettaw had been sentenced to seven years in prison for swimming to the residence of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest since 2003 and was recently sentenced to an additional 18 months. The sentence was for violating the terms of her detention after she allowed Yettaw to stay in her home.
On Saturday, Webb became the first American leader ever to meet with Myanmar President Than Shwe. He is the first member of Congress to visit the country in more than 10 years.
He was able to broker Yettaw’s release during the meeting with Shwe, and also requested that the country release Suu Kyi from her sentence.
“I am grateful to the Myanmar government for honoring these requests,” Webb said . “It is my hope that we can take advantage of these gestures as a way to begin laying a foundation of goodwill and confidence-building in the future.”
Webb met with Suu Kyi for almost an hour on Saturday afternoon. He described the meeting as “an opportunity for me to convey my deep respect to Aung San Suu Kyi for the sacrifices she has made on behalf of democracy around the world.”
Suu Kyi’s party won elections called by the country’s military junta in 1990, but the junta refused to honor the results. She has been detained for 14 of the past 20 years. Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962.
Yettaw will be officially deported from Myanmar this morning, according to a release from Webb’s office.
The senior senator from Virginia will bring him out of the country on a military aircraft that is returning to Bangkok, Thailand, this afternoon.
Webb is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s East Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee. He arrived in Myanmar’s capital of Naypyitaw on Friday, and is scheduled to speak to reporters in Yangon today.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
