Yangon - Myanmar's junta is using the bizarre swimming break-in to opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's house by a US citizen as an excuse to keep the popular democracy icon in prison, Myanmar pro-democracy activists said Friday.

Suu Kyi, 63, was on Thursday shifted from her Yangon family compound to Insein Prison, to stand trial on Monday for abetting the illegal entry by US national John William Yettaw to her home.

Yettaw, a 53-year-old veteran of the Vietnam War who reportedly wanted to pray with Suu Kyi, swam to the opposition leader's house-cum-prison on Inya Lake on May 3 and swam away on May 6, when he was arrested.

The timing of the illegal entry could not have been better for Myanmar's military regime.

The maximum legal term for Suu Kyi's current house detention is six years, which falls due on May 27. But if she is found guilty of breaking the State Security Act, Section
22, by unlawfully allowing Yettaw's entry to her home, Suu Kyi faces a minimum of three years to a maximum five year jail term.

Suu Kyi leads the National League for Democracy (NLD) party which won the 1990 general election by a landslide but has been blocked from assuming power by the military for the past 19 years. Suu Kyi has spent 13 of those years under house arrest.

A new prison sentence, this time probably to be served in the notorious Insein Prison, would keep her out of the political picture this year and next when the junta has scheduled a general election.

"Yettaw may have had good intentions but he is being used as a scapegoat by the junta to detain Aung San Suu Kyi on other charges," said Bo Hla-Tint, foreign minister of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma - a government-in-exile.

"This incident has provided the military with an excuse to do what they want," Hla-Tint said.

Myanmar activists based in Thailand and abroad have stopped short of accusing Yettaw of collaborating with the junta to put Suu Kyi behind bars again, but they accuse the junta of exploiting the occasion.

"They intended to catch Suu Kyi in this trap," Thin Thin Aung, president of the Board of Women's League of Burma, said.

Yettaw had previously broken in to Suu Kyi's compound in December, last year, an incident that Suu Kyi had reported to the attention of authorities.

Suu Kyi house sits on Inya Lake. Although the front gate is constantly guarded, the compound is easily accessible by the lake side which is unguarded.

"Why did the regime only arrest Yettaw and charge Suu Kyi as a collaborator this time," Ngo Ohn Myint, foreign affairs minister of the NLD Liberated Aras, said. "And why did they issue him another tourist visa?"

Whatever Yettaw's reasons for his escapade, the shift of Suu Kyi to Insein Prison has elicited immediate expressions of concern from the international community, and even from some Asian leaders including Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

"This is getting ridiculous," Kraisak Choonhavan, deputy leader of Thailand's ruling Democrat Party, said. "It's inconceivable to see a lady in a prison where people have been tortured and killed," Kraisak said.

The NLD has expressed deep concerns about Suu Kyi's health, which has deteriorated in recent months. Suu Kyi was on an intravenous drip last week, suffering from dehydration.

Insein Prison is notorious not only for torturing its inmates but also for its atrocious health conditions. The jail has been named "the HIV/AIDS factory" by former inmates. (dpa)