Reuters-FOCUS-British woman faces l

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Subject: Reuters-FOCUS-British woman faces long Myanmar jail term 

FOCUS-British woman faces long Myanmar jail term
04:54 a.m. Sep 15, 1999 Eastern
By Aung Hla Tun

YANGON, Sept 15 (Reuters) - A British woman arrested for a pro-democracy
protest in Myanmar was told by a Yangon court on Wednesday she would be
tried for breaking the country's draconian emergency laws.

Londoner Rachel Goldwyn, arrested on September 7 after tying herself to a
lamp post in central Yangon and shouting pro-democracy slogans, faces a jail
sentence of at least seven years if convicted under the Emergency Provisions
Act, which has been used by the military government to suppress dissent.

Goldwyn nodded when asked if she planned to mount a defence and the brief
session of a special court outside the jail where she has been held was
adjourned until Thursday morning to allow her to arrange legal counsel.

Local political analysts speculate that while Goldwyn could receive a long
sentence she may then have that suspended and be deported since it was her
first offence.

Goldwyn was the second Briton arrested in Myanmar for pro-democracy activism
in just over a week. She has been held at the notorious Insein Jail where
many political prisoners have been detained in the past.

On September 1, James Mawdsley, 26, from Lancashire, who also holds an
Australian passport, was jailed for 17 years after entering the country
illegally carrying pro-democracy leaflets.

On Wednesday, British vice consul Karen Williams and an Australian official
saw Mawdsley in jail in the northeastern town of Kengtung for the first time
since his arrest.

``He's fine and the vice consul's been in touch with his father and there's
no cause for concern in that sense,'' the British embassy official said.

Mawdsley had asked the British embassy to handle his case, but the official
said he was unable to say whether the activist intended to appeal against
his sentence.

Goldwyn, her blonde hair tied in a ponytail, appeared calm when she appeared
in court flanked by two policewomen. She wore a blue shirt, a pink
traditional sarong and ``thanaka'' -- facial makeup made from roots that is
popular with women in Myanmar.

The British official said a lawyer had been arranged for Goldwyn who would
be with her in court on Thursday.

``She was in good spirits and fairly fit and well and she told me she is
certainly not being mistreated,'' the official said.

On Monday, the government's daily information sheet published a letter from
a Myanmar historian describing both Britons as ``criminal mercenaries.''

The arrests came amid a crackdown to thwart an uprising dissident exiles
called for last week that did not materialise.

Diplomats estimate authorities arrested more than 100 local activists in
Yangon and others in the provinces in the past month to prevent the
uprising. Dissidents put the number of arrests at about 500 while the
government has reported fewer than 40.

Myanmar's military does not tolerate dissent and has been widely criticised
for rights abuses since taking direct power in 1988 by killing thousands to
crush a pro-democracy uprising. It then ignored the last general election in
1990 when the opposition National League for Democracy won by a landslide.