[burmanet2-l] FREE MAWDSLEY NOW!!!

[dohrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Re: [burmanet2-l] FREE  MAWDSLEY NOW!!!   Solidarity Now!!! AP-Brit


One of the strongest aspects of any effort to help him is on the issue of
due process.  Do the UK and Australian Embassies know if he had legal
representation?  Was there evidence presented?  Did his lawyer have a
chance to question the evidence?  Are they willing to let this opaque
process stand, or do they need some accounting of the way their citizen
was treated?  Short of a clear answer to these questions, Britons and
Aussies indeed have every reason and right to demand some account of his
"conviction."  My guess is that if the truth of Mawdsley's experience
under "Myanmar law" comes out, it will not look good for the junta.

On Thu, 2 Sep 1999, Dawn Star wrote:

> FREE  MAWDSLEY NOW!!!
> 
> Are the Brits going to start a solidarity freedom campaign, with Amnesty
> International, to get this guy out of prison? Or are they going to let
> him take all the heat and just, slowly rot away? 
> 
> 
> He put his neck out, at risk of his life. And now he's paying the price.
> The generals want to make an example out of him. Well, all those
> highspirited western activists deported last year, where are they now? 
> 
> There should be an international campaign, full time, to high-light this
> atrocious and unacceptable treatment of a western humanitarian. Anything
> less is simply grotesquely unpardonable. 
> 
> Lets get some consensus on this, and lets get it now.Don't let the junta
> use him as another bargaining chip here or there. Don't let them trade
> his life away. 
> 
> It could have been you, or me. What's next, a firing squad? Or just a
> slow, diseased, debilitating decay, madness and death.
> 
> This is a test for everyone. While you are in a comfortable, secure,
> cultured environment, what do you James Mawdsley he is doing right now?
> What do you think he is thinking?  
> 
> He is one of us, you and me. He is a brother to the Burmese. He put his
> life out on the line. Its time to get him out, and make an international
> campaign out of it, until the generals can't stand it anymore!!!
> 
> In solidarity, 
> 
> dawn star 
> paris, 
> euroburmanet
> 
> 
> > Thursday September 2 7:13 AM ET
> > 
> > Brit Activist Sentenced in Myanmar
> > 
> > YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - A British activist was sentenced to 17 years in
> > prison after trying to smuggle anti-government literature into Myanmar,
the
> > country's military regime said today.
> > 
> > James Rupert Russell Mawdsley, 26, was arrested Tuesday after crossing
into
> > Myanmar at Tachilek, a trading town on the border with Thailand. It was
his
> > third arrest in two years for making a personal bid to rally support
against
> > the government.
> > 
> > Anti-government activists are calling for a mass uprising Sept. 9, or
> > 9-9-99, a date seen as auspicious in this numerology obsessed country. The
> > government has acknowledged arresting nearly 40 people. Opposition groups
> > say the figure is much higher. Mawdsley is the only foreigner.
> > 
> > A government spokesman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity,
said a
> > five-year sentence imposed against Mawdsley last year for illegal entry,
> > then suspended when he was freed following three months in Yangon's
> > notorious Insein Prison, had been reinstated.
> > 
> > Mawdsley was convicted of the same offense in a summary trial Wednesday in
> > Tachilek and received another five years, plus seven more for violating a
> > publications act.
> > 
> > ``The government of Myanmar deeply regrets having to take such actions
> > against Mr. James Mawdsley,'' the government spokesman said in a fax to
news
> > agencies in Thailand.
> > 
> > ``But his repeated breach of the same law and conditions agreed upon makes
> > it difficult for the government to show leniency this time ... ''
> > 
> > Mawdsley also holds Australian citizenship. Both the British and
Australian
> > embassies are seeking consular access. He was being held in Keng Tung, a
> > remote northeastern city.
> > 
> > In London, Mawdsley's father said he was extremely worried.
> > 
> > Myanmar's state-controlled press has described Mawdsley as a ``mercenary
> > terrorist.''
> > 
> > The pamphlets he carried into Myanmar, formerly Burma, urged soldiers and
> > civil servants to disobey orders and work for democracy. It also
appealed to
> > the regime to free all political prisoners and reopen the universities,
> > closed since protests in 1996.
> > 
> > There has been little sign that Myanmar's people are ready to follow
urgings
> > by dissidents, mostly in exile in Thailand, and rise up next week. The
> > military killed thousands during failed street protests in 1988.
> > 
> > The military, which has ruled Myanmar since 1962, has been condemned by
many
> > human rights organizations and Western governments for human rights abuses
> > and suppressing the pro-democracy movement led by Nobel Peace laureate
Aung
> > San Suu Kyi.
> > 
> > Mawdsley, who says he has drawn inspiration for nonviolent struggle
from Suu
> > Kyi and Indian resistance hero Mahatma Gandhi, was arrested in September
> > 1997 after chaining himself to a fence in Yangon and shouting
pro-democracy
> > slogans. He was immediately deported.
> > 
> > In April 1998, he was captured in the southern town of Moulmein while
> > distributing pamphlets. After three months in solitary confinement in
> > Insein, he was released on condition he never return.
> 
>