BANGKOK, Thailand — When John Yettaw of Falcon, Mo., slipped into the warm waters of a Rangoon lake last week and swam to the house of detained Myanmar democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi, he apparently had little idea of the potential ramifications.
Suu Kyi and Yettaw are now being held in Myanmar's notorious Insein Prison, along with Suu Kyi's two housekeepers and her doctor.
Suu Kyi, 63, has been under virtual house arrest for 13 of the 19 years since the ruling military junta refused to recognize her party's overwhelming victory in the 1990 elections. She is not allowed to have visitors and could face a three- to five-year prison term because of Yettaw's uninvited intrusion, according to opposition officials.
She could also be convicted of breaking a law requiring citizens to notify authorities if anyone other than a family member wants to stay overnight in their homes.
"Everyone is very angry with this wretched American," Suu Kyi's attorney, Kyi Win, told reporters. "He is the cause of all these problems."
Yettaw has been charged with immigration offenses and entering a restricted zone, which carries a three- to five-year sentence.
Yettaw, 53, has not had an opportunity to explain why he decided to visit Suu Kyi. He has told his family in Missouri that he tried to meet Suu Kyi last year, also by swimming across the lake, but that her staff stopped him.
"I think that's what motivated him to go back," his wife, Betty Yettaw, told reporters. "He thought he could be in and out."
She said that before he left her and his four children, Yettaw had explained that he wanted to return to Asia to write a paper on forgiveness for a psychology course he was taking.
Western leaders and other prominent figures have condemned the new charges against Suu Kyi. A group of politicians, entertainers and writers — including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Madonna, Salman Rushdie, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Elie Wiesel — issued a statement Friday calling Suu Kyi " the world's only incarcerated Nobel Peace Prize Laureate."
"Nineteen years ago, the Myanmar people chose Aung San Suu Kyi to be their next leader. And for most of those 19 years she has been kept under house arrest by the military junta that now runs the country," the statement said.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that "if the 2010 elections are to have any semblance of credibility, (Suu Kyi) and all political prisoners must be freed to participate." The top U.N. human rights official, Navanethem Pillay, called for her immediate release, saying, "I deplore Ms. Suu Kyi's ongoing persecution."
Also Friday, President Obama renewed U.S. sanctions against the Myanmar government, saying in a letter to Congress that its actions and policies "are hostile to U.S. interests and pose a continuing unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States."
Like Afghanistan in the 1980s and East Timor in the 1990s, Myanmar — also known as Burma — stirs strong feelings on the part of the many foreigners who follow every twist and turn of the ruling junta's long effort to strangle democracy.
Aung Zaw, who edits the respected Irrawaddy newsmagazine from exile in northern Thailand, said Suu Kyi, with her combination of apparent physical fragility and steely moral resolve, "is like a magnet that has drawn a lot of people from the West, both intelligent and unintelligent."
Minka Nijhuis, a Dutch journalist who has written two books about Myanmar, said she was not surprised by Yettaw's actions.
"He fits the profile," she said. "It is such a 'Beauty and the Beast' story, and it is very easy for people like him to identify with such a good cause."
But Aung Zaw said sincerity and good intentions are not enough. "Some activists have done tremendous damage, either to individuals or to the movement, and the regime has exploited these activists," he said.
Among the targets of his ire are two Britons, James Mawdsley, who was arrested in 1999 for distributing pamphlets attacking the junta, and Rachel Goldwyn, who sang a protest song in the streets of Rangoon, also in 1999. They were sentenced to 17 years and seven years, respectively, but between them spent less than a year in prison before they were released and expelled from the country.