Philippine Denounce Burmese Junta A

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Philippine activists denounce Myanmar arrest

 .c Kyodo News Service    

MANILA, Aug. 10 (Kyodo) - Philippine activists denounced Monday the detention
of 18 foreigners, including two Filipinos, in Yangon by government authorities
for allegedly distributing antigovernment leaflets. 

''We denounce the arrest of our colleagues who went to Burma to commemorate
the 10th anniversary of the Aug. 8, 1988 people's uprising,'' Merci Ferrer,
head of the Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID), a nongovernmental
organization, told Kyodo News in a telephone interview. 

''The arrest is an insult to all freedom-loving people of Asia and the
world,'' she added. 

The two detained activists from the Philippines were working with the IID-
organized Free Burma (Myanmar) Coalition group in the Philippines. 

The IID also called on the Philippine government and ''all freedom-loving
Filipinos to continue pressuring Burma's military junta'' for a dialogue with
the National League for Democracy (NLD) and with ethnic minorities. 

The Philippine Embassy in Yangon said the embassy staff could not meet the two
detained activists from the Philippines. 

Philippine Ambassador to Myanmar Sonia Brady told the Foreign Department on
Monday that the Myanmar government said the 18 were not detained but were
''just invited for questioning.'' 

Some of them are being held in a guest house while others are at the police
headquarters in Yangon, Brady said. 

She said Myanmar authorities have not yet decided on the legal action to take
against the group but added that the 18 were apparently not maltreated and
were in good health. 

Apart from the two Filipinos, the Myanmar government has detained an
Australian, three Indonesian, three Malaysian, three Thais, and six Americans.