Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent years under house arrest under the former ruling junta but now hopes to bring her party to power, spoke of the law but not of sectarian tensions when asked about the verdict.

NPR: Myanmar Muslims Jailed For Killing Buddhist Monk

Yet earlier this month, a senior United Nations official, Ibrahim Gambari, visited Myanmar, and was allowed to see Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader, who is under house arrest.

ECONOMIST: Myanmar

Obama then met pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi at the lakeside home where she spent years under house arrest.

BBC: US President Obama hails Burma's 'remarkable journey'

Members of Dublin city council voted unanimously to confer the honour, which is also being given to Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize while living under house arrest.

BBC: News | Entertainment | Capital honour for U2

But in the teashops of Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city, the talk two decades on is not of sanctions but of the need for dialogue, of frustration with the main opposition party, the National League for Democracy, and even with its detained leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and of the widening gap between those who oppose the junta from abroad and those who live under its thumb.

ECONOMIST: Hopes for change have yielded to despair