YANGOON: Military-ruled Myanmar’s state media today warned citizens against inciting protests as democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi began stockpiling supplies ahead of a possible five-year jail term.

A prison court is expected to deliver a verdict on Friday in the Nobel peace laureate’s trial for breaching the terms of her house arrest by allegedly sheltering an American intruder who swam to her house.

The New Light of Myanmar newspaper published a comment piece today cautioning against anti-government factions and saying, “We have to ward off subversive elements and disruptions.”

“Look out if some one provokes the people to take to the streets. In reality they are anti-democracy elements, not pro-democracy activists,” the English-language article said.

“They don’t believe in democracy, and they don’t acknowledge the people’s reasoning power.” Security has been tight for all the hearings, with memories still fresh in Myanmar of massive anti-junta protests led by Buddhist monks in 2007, which ended in a bloody crackdown.

A conviction is widely expected in the two-and-a-half-month trial, which has sparked international outrage. It has been repeatedly delayed as the junta fended off criticism and calls for the release of Suu Kyi.

The 64-year-old opposition icon has asked for English and French novels and Burmese-language books, dictionaries and religious works to help her pass the time if she is jailed, her lawyer Nyan Win said.

“I think Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is preparing for the worst,” Nyan Win, who is also a spokesman for her National League for Democracy, told AFP. Daw is a term of respect in Burmese.

“She has said that if she has to stay in prison for a long time, she has only one thing to do and that is reading.” Nyan Win, however, added: “I hope Daw Suu will be released according to the law.”

Critics say the trial is a ploy by the regime to keep Suu Kyi locked up until after elections scheduled for 2010. She has already spent almost 14 of the last 20 years in detention.

The New Light of Myanmar editorial pointed out that “people who are serving their prison terms do not have the right to vote or to stand for election”.

The newspaper also launched an apparent attack on the NLD, which won the country’s last elections in 1990 but was prevented from taking power by the ruling generals.

It said, “A handful of politicians with excessive greed, anger and conceit are troubling the people, and millions of people are impoverished. The people... are waiting for the time they mend their ways.”