Did Black Magic Play a Role in Suu Kyi Trial Verdict?

Reporters and some diplomats who followed the Aung San Suu Kyi trial and attended the final session are asking—and not only in jest— whether the ruling generals used voodoo or black magic to influence the verdict.

The trial was repeatedly adjourned until it was suddenly wrapped up in one morning session on August 11.

Burmese are asking themselves whether the superstitious Burmese military leaders chose to end the trial on August 11 on the advice of astrologers. And reporters and some diplomats who attended the final session appear to be considering the possibility, too.

The court proceedings had been scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. but got underway at 10:45 a.m., when John W Yettaw, who has been receiving medical treatment recently for a stroke, was led into the court wearing a blue and white long-sleeved shirt and off-white trousers.

Aung San Suu Kyi entered the court at 10:50 a.m.

Exactly at 11 a.m., the judges began reading out the case history of John W Yettaw and later turned to address the case of Suu Kyi. A local reporter who attended the session said some foreign diplomats with knowledge of the regime’s superstitious ways smiled at the timing and asked why the judgment appeared to have been delayed until 11 a.m.

Yadaya, Burma’s form of voodoo, is said to rule the lives of junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe and his family and to influence his policy decisions. He and other top generals, together with members of their families, are known to regularly consult astrologers.

In Burmese Buddhist tradition, there are “eleven fires”— greed, hatred, delusion, birth, aging, death, grief, lamentation, pain, sorrow and despair—which, in a spiritual context, are fueled by sentient attachment.


Some astrologers within Burma ask whether the generals are trying to prevent the “eleven fires” from befalling them by turning to yadaya.

Many observers inside and outside the country are amused to discern what appears to be the appearance of a new number—11—in the code of superstitions adopted by the generals.

In September 2008, the regime released 9,002 prisoners. Add the numerals together and what do you get? Eleven!

During the dictatorship of Gen Ne Win, the number 9 became the satanic mark of the regime. Even the national currency was altered to denominations of nine, with 45-kyat and 90-kyat notes, which suddenly and without warning replaced the existing currency.

When he was in power, one of his aides, Sein Lwin, who was president of Burma for two weeks during the turbulent summer of 1988, regularly consulted astrologers in an attempt to foresee the future.