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Reuters : Myanmar pledges quick act



Myanmar pledges quick action on activists - Manila 
09:56 a.m. Aug 10, 1998 Eastern 

MANILA, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Myanmar's military government has promised to
deal expeditiously with the cases of two Filipinos it is holding along with
16 other foreign pro-democracy activists, Philippines Foreign Secretary
Domingo Siazon said on Monday. Khin Nyunt, powerful Secretary One of the
ruling State Peace and Development Council, made the pledge to the
Philippines ambassador to Myanmar, Sonia Brady, Siazon told reporters in
Manila. 

Brady, in a report to Manila, said Myanmar authorities told 
diplomats they had not yet decided on what legal action to take against the
activists, Philippines Foreign Office officials said. 

The Myanmar authorities had said the activists were only invited for
questioning and had not been arrested or charged, the officials quoted
Brady's report as saying. 

The 18 foreign activists were detained on Sunday after they organised a
mass leaflet of the capital, Yangon, to mark the 10th anniversary of a
military crackdown on pro-democracy protests. 

Opposition supporters say thousands of people died in the 1988 unrest. The
military puts the death toll at a few dozen. 

in Yangon, a government spokesman on Monday said the foreign activists had
been attempting to incite unrest and accused them of breaking at least two
laws by distributing the leaflets. 

The activists are being kept in a guest house and at the police
headquarters in Yangon, according to Brady's report. 

Myanmar police said the detained foreigners comprised six Americans, an
Australian, three Thais, three Malaysians and three Indonesians and the two
Filipinos.