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Myanmar Pledges Quick Action on Act
Myanmar Pledges Quick Action on Activists Manila
Reuters
10-AUG-98
MANILA, Aug 10 (Reuters)- Myanmar's military government has
promised to deal expeditiously with the cases of two
Filipinos it is
holding along with 16 other foreign pro-democracy activists,
Philippines Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon said on Monday.
Khin
Nyunt, powerful Secretary One of the ruling State Peace and
Development Council, made the pledge to the Philippines
ambassador to Myanmar, Sonia Brady, Siazon told reporters in
Manila.
Brady, in a report to Manila, said Myanmar authorities told
diplomats
they had not yet decided on what legal action to take
against the
activists, Philippines Foreign Office officials said.
The Myanmar authorities had said the activists were only
invited for
questioning and had not been arrested or charged, the
officials quoted
Brady's report as saying.
The 18 foreign activists were detained on Sunday after they
organised
a mass leaflet of the capital, Yangon, to mark the 10th
anniversary of a
military crackdown on pro-democracy protests.
Opposition supporters say thousands of people died in the
1988
unrest. The military puts the death toll at a few dozen.
in Yangon, a government spokesman on Monday said the foreign
activists had been attempting to incite unrest and accused
them of
breaking at least two laws by distributing the leaflets.
The activists are being kept in a guest house and at the
police
headquarters in Yangon, according to Brady's report.
Myanmar police said the detained foreigners comprised six
Americans, an Australian, three Thais, three Malaysians and
three
Indonesians and the two Filipinos.