US man says no regrets about Myanmar jailing

Posted: Aug 19, 2009 12:05 PM

By MARIA SUDEKUM FISHER
Associated Press Writer

CHICAGO (AP) - American John Yettaw said Wednesday he has no regrets about taking a secret swim to the home of Myanmar's detained democracy leader - a decision that landed them both in prison - and indicated that he still believes his bizarre visit somehow saved her from being assassinated.

"If I had to do it again, I would do it a hundred times, a hundred times, to save her life," an exhausted-looking Yettaw said of Aung San Suu Kyi in an interview with The Associated Press after arriving in the U.S. on Wednesday.

He added, "That they locked her up, it just breaks my heart."

Yettaw, 53, was wearing a blue surgical mask and clutching a green Harrods bag as he was pushed in a wheelchair through Chicago's O'Hare International Airport after his arrival. Yettaw, who has been ill since his arrest in Myanmar, wore the mask to guard against infection.

The American is from the tiny south-central Missouri town of Falcon, but he generated global headlines after he was arrested and sentenced to hard labor for visiting the home of Suu Kyi. Yettaw was deported Sunday from Myanmar after the intervention of U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va.

Yettaw has testified that he swam to the Nobel Laureate's house in May to warn her that he had a "vision" that she would be assassinated. Though Yettaw was released, Suu Kyi and her two live-in aides remain in detention because of Yettaw's visit, and Yettaw has been called a fool and a madman by some of her supporters.

As he waited in Chicago to board a flight to Springfield, Mo. - his last destination after a nearly 24-hour journey from Bangkok - Yettaw sat with his head in his hands, his eyes bloodshot.

His companion, who did not identify herself, said he was "very tired." He flashed the sign language symbol for "I love you" and nodded and smiled when asked whether he was happy to be home.

When asked later if he would comment further, Yettaw said "I wish I could talk more. I can't" and made a zipper motion across his mouth. When he arrived in Springfield on Wednesday night, he was greeted by a police officer after collecting his luggage. He did not speak to media on the flight.

Yettaw had flown with Webb to neighboring Thailand on a U.S. government plane Sunday and underwent two days of medical tests at a private Bangkok hospital.

Webb said Yettaw had suffered a "medical incident" just before leaving Myanmar as authorities there read him his deportation order. While in custody in a Yangon jail during his trial, he had a seizure and was hospitalized for a week. He also reportedly suffers from diabetes and asthma.

Yettaw, a Mormon who lives on a military pension from serving in the Army for about a year in 1973, traveled to Myanmar in early May and donned homemade flippers for a nighttime swim to Suu Kyi's lakeside home. The incident ledto a trial that sparked global condemnation in which Suu Kyi was sentenced to an additional 18 months of detention for breaching the terms of her house arrest. She has already spent 14 of the past 20 years in detention.

Suu Kyi's lawyers have described Yettaw's release was a "very ugly" turn.

Yettaw testified that he was on a divine mission to save the democracy leader, saying he had a "vision" she was going to be assassinated and wanted to warn her. Suu Kyi testified that she repeatedly asked Yettaw to leave but relented because he complained of exhaustion and she was concerned for his safety.

Associated Press Writer Jocelyn Gecker in Bangkok contributed to this report.