Dictators have their own ideas of law and justice, but that does not stop them from staging courtroom dramas. The most dramatic element in Aung San Suu Kyi’s sham trial came after the court had read its verdict. As if the sentence of three years of hard labour was not revolting enough, the chief of Myanmar’s ruling junta, General Than Shwe, had the audacity of showing her fake mercy by reducing the sentence to 18 months and allowing her to stay in her own house in Yangon. For someone who has spent 14 of the past 20 years under house-arrest, the mockery of the General’s gesture is all too evident. But this is only a small part of a larger, more sinister, design. The junta has been forced by international pressure to arrange elections to the country’s parliament next year. The manner in which it organized a constitutional referendum last year to pave the way for the polls gave enough indications about its intentions for the elections. It would be another exercise in stifling hopes for a democratic Myanmar. But the experience of the 1990 elections, swept by Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy and annulled by the junta, has clearly made the junta nervous. It does not want to take any chances and will now use the verdict in order to keep her out of next year’s polls.

The international community had no hopes of Ms Suu Kyi getting any kind of justice. Leaders of Western countries were particularly vehement in their condemnation of the trial and its verdict. But the question is what they can do to stop Myanmar’s rulers from not just continuing to detain Ms Suu Kyi but also denying its people democracy and the rule of law. Her long years under house arrest has shown that the junta cares little about international opinion. Even threats of sanctions by the United Nations have not worked mainly because of opposition by China and sometimes Russia. The UN and other countries can help the cause of democracy in Myanmar only by putting more pressure on its leaders and their allies elsewhere. The polls next year provide one such opportunity. The world must use diplomatic and other means to ensure that the junta’s will does not prevail yet again. It is not enough to treat Myanmar as a pariah state; the world must ensure that it is replaced by a civilized one. Allowing Myanmar’s rulers to continue their evil regime can weaken democratic aspirations everywhere.