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Remember: Myanmar suspends jail sen
- Subject: Remember: Myanmar suspends jail sen
- From: heiko@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 04 Sep 1999 03:19:00
Subject: Remember: Myanmar suspends jail sentences and deports foreign
activists
To: Burma Net News <burmanet-l@xxxxxxxxxxx>
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Myanmar suspends jail sentences and deports foreign activists
YANGON, Aug 14 (AFP) - Eighteen foreign activists were sentenced to
five years hard labour by a court in Myanmar Friday for attempting to
incite unrest but the penalties were immediately suspended and they
were ordered to be deported, diplomats said.
The activists, who were detained last Sunday after they handed out
leaflets here promoting human rights and democracy, were to stay at a
police guest house overnight before flying to Bangkok on Saturday, they
added.
The move came as opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi spent a second
night in her car on a roadside near Yangon after being blocked from
visiting provincial supporters.
The presiding judge told the activists they would have 90 days to
appeal the sentence and one of them immediately said he would appeal,
before the home affairs ministry stepped in and ordered the suspension,
witnesses said.
However, suspension on these sentences was conditional on the activists
pledging not to violate Myanmar law again, "refraining from acts
detrimental to the people of Myanmar" and having to serve their
sentence at the notorious Insein prison, an official said.
The suspenson was ordered in "view of bilateral relations between
Myanmar and the relevant countries," the home ministry said.
The activists were arrested while handing out pamphlets here urging
people to remember the 10th anniversary of a bloody military crackdown
on pro-democracy demonstrators on August 8, 1988.
The pamphlets also promoted human rights and democracy.
The detainees were six US nationals, three Thais, three Malaysians,
three Indonesians, two Filipinos and one Australian. Ten were male and
eight female.
All the activists were treated well during their detention, diplomats
said.
The foreigners were charged under the country's emergency act with
inciting public unrest, for which the maximum penalty is 10 years
imprisonment.
Myanmar's junta earlier accused the 18 foreigners of inciting unrest
and dismissed mounting pressure from the international community to
release them.
The White House welcomed the activists' release but warned their
detentions were but one example of Yangon's human rights abuses.
"While we are pleased that these American citizens will be returning to
the United States, we think this ought to serve as a reminder that
there is an absence of protection of basic human rights in Burma," said
spokesman Michael McCurry, using the colonial name for Myanmar.
The incident was "a failure of the Burmese government to allow freedom
of expression which underscores all the points that we have made
privately and publicly," he added.
============= Here ==================
Myanmar authorities earlier this month freed a British-Australian
national who was originally sentenced to five years in jail for illegal
entry and "terrorist" activities.
James Mawdsley, 25, was pardoned by the ruling junta after the
government received a letter from his parents.
He had served just over three months of his sentence which was handed
down by the court at Insein in May for "collaborating with armed
terrorist groups to disrupt stability."
============= Up to Here ============
Aung San Suu Kyi meanwhile remained in her car blocked from travelling
on a rural highway for a second day in the fourth such standoff with
the junta in little over a month.
"It seems she is still there and they have plenty of supplies. It is
basically the same situation as before," a western embassy official
said.
He was referring to a six-day roadside standoff which ended when the
junta forcibly drove her home on July 29 after she tried to meet
supporters outside Yangon.
She is now in the same spot on a small bridge some 25 kilometres (15
miles) outside Yangon, diplomats said, but this time she is in a
mini-van rather than a sedan and has brought extra supplies.
A junta spokesman said an ambulance was at the site and security
personnel had been deployed to protect her.
Washington and Britain on Thursday warned the junta to ensure she was
looked after and called for the two sides to hold talks.
The US embassy in Yangon has asked for permission for officials to
travel to the site "to observe the situation and speak with Aung San
Suu Kyi," said State Department deputy spokesman James Foley.
Britain's Foreign Office minister Derek Fatchett echoed the call saying
the travel restrictions imposed on her should be lifted.
"I deeply regret that the Burmese regime should, instead of opening
dialogue with the National League for Democracy (NLD) and other
democratic leaders, yet again have chosen to stop Aung San Suu Kyi
freely travelling around Burma," Fatchett said in a statement.
The NLD won 1990 polls by a landslide but the junta has refused to
relinquish power. The NLD has set the junta an August 21 deadline for
convening parliament or face unspecified consequences.
kf/bl/awb
--
+================== Burma Group Tuebingen ==================+
| Heiko Schaefer | heiko@xxxxxxxxxxxxx |
| Beim Herbstenhof 42 | |
| 72076 Tuebingen, Germany | Tel: ++49 7071 55 25 54 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| http://www.burmagroup.de/ |
+===========================================================+
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