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British activist gets seven years i



British activist gets seven years in Myanmar jail 

AFP 16 Sept 99   Military-ruled Myanmar on Thursday sentenced a British
human rights activist to seven years "rigorous imprisonment" for her lone
pro-democracy protest. 

Rachel Goldwyn, 28, was arrested last week after chaining herself to a
lampost in downtown Yangon and singing a revolutionary song two days before
a planned dissident uprising. 

She pleaded not guilty to sedition and will appeal the verdict handed down
by a court in Yangon's notorious Insein prison, her lawyers said. 

Goldywn, who reacted calmly to the verdict, told the court she had not
intended to threaten national security, but had expected to be arrested. 

"My actions were not intended to cause public panic but to make a statement
about the lack of democracy here," she said. 

"I chained myself to the post as a symbolic statement, to say that Burma is
under very strict control." 

Myanmar's military rulers, who are accused of gross human rights abuses by
many overseas governments, are frequently targeted by exiled dissidents and
foreign campaigners supporting democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. 

Goldwyn, from London, wore a blue shirt and orange sarong during the
six-hour trial, had her blonde hair tied up and wore traditional Burmese
sandlewood makeup. 

She was charged under Myanmar's Emergency Provisions Act and received the
maximum prison term available to the single judge, but escaped a fine. 

British diplomats in Yangon refused to comment on the verdict pending
Goldwyn's appeal, which must be made within 90 days.

"The seven years was for endangering peace, stability and security," said a
British official. 

The verdict came two weeks after another British activist was jailed for 17
years after his third arrest in Myanmar within two years. 

James Mawdsley, 26, who is serving his sentence in the northern state of
Shan, was visited by a British official for the first time on Wednesday and
said to be in good health. 

Despite his father's reported fears that Mawdsley was being tortured in
jail, there was no evidence of mistreatment, diplomats said. 

Goldwyn said in a statement prepared before her arrest and released last
week that she wanted to expose the "genocidal regime" of Myanmar's military
rulers. 

"I want to tell the people of Burma (Myanmar) to be brave at this important
time, and to tell the generals they better start running," Goldwyn wrote. 

"People exist without rights, all opposition to the junta is brutally
crushed ... there is no freedom of movement, assembly or expression." 

According to some reports published in Britain, she said in a message left
for her parents that she expected to be deported within two weeks. 

Analysts in Yangon said Thursday that although foreign protestors were
often kicked out of Myanmar after their first offence, the government had
acted firmly in the hope of deterring further foreign protesters. 

In her statement, Goldwyn, a researcher with a Burmese student group who
once worked with Karen refugees on the Thai/Myanmar border, said she also
wanted to highlight Myanmar's military regime to people in Britain. 

She condemned British business links to Myanmar. 

"Investing in or trading with Burma funds the brutal regime that commits
these atrocities. British companies have blood on their hands too," said
the statement, dated August 15. 

Britain, along with many other Western nations, maintains a range of
economic and trade sanctions on Myanmar to punish what it says is the
junta's appalling human rights record. 

Goldwyn was detained ahead of a student uprising planned for September 9,
which in the event was largely suppressed by a strict military security
operation. 

Former inmates of Insein prison have told grisly tales of mistreatment,
poor conditions and torture of political prisoners.  

Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won an overwhelming
victory in 1990 elections, but the result was ignored by the junta, which
embarked on a campaign of arrests and intimidation of NLD members. 

The military has ruled Myanmar for 37 years. 

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