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NEWS - Myanmar puts democracy advoc
Myanmar puts democracy advocates on trial
In this story:
-U.S. representative 'optimistic'
-Not the first time
-Pressure increases over
-treatment of Suu Kyi
August 14, 1998
Web posted at: 3:23 a.m. EDT (0723 GMT)
YANGON, Myanmar (CNN) --
Eighteen international democracy
advocates were put on trial Friday morning by Myanar's
ruling military
government after their arrest last week for handing out
pro-democracy
leaflets in the Yangon.
The 18 -- six Americans, three Thais, three Malaysians,
three
Indonesians, two Filipinos and one Australian -- are being
tried under
a far-reaching law that allows the government to jail
dissidents for up to
twenty years for inciting unrest or threatening the
stability of the state.
The trial is being held at a court in Insein, a northern
suburb of Yangon
that is home to a prison where political detainees are
usually kept. The
court was open to some members of the public as well as
diplomats
and journalists.
The activists were detained by
authorities
Sunday for handing out small cards to
Myanmar citizens telling them that the
outside world supported their struggle
for
democracy. The cards also urged the
people to remember a 1988 opposition
uprising brutally crushed by the military
junta.
The military, which has ruled Myanmar in
various guises since 1962, allegedly
gunned down about 3,000 demonstrators
during the 1988 uprising. The government
says the death toll was less than fifty.
The arrests Sunday came was one day
after the tenth anniversary of the deadly
crackdown.
The 18 democracy activists have been held at a military
guest house
in the capital. Diplomats who have visited the house
described them
as cheerful and well-fed and have said the activists were
being treated
humanely.
The military government issued a statement this week,
however,
saying their release had been delayed because they were
being
uncooperative.
The military is trying to discourage international activists
from entering
Myanmar and inciting the population to revolt, while at the
same time
avoiding repercussions from the governments of countries
from which
the activists come.
U.S. representative 'optimistic'
The United States has pressed
Myanmar's government to release
the detainees but the governments
of the other activists have stayed
relatively neutral, expressing
sympathy for their cause and urging
a speedy resolution of the issue.
U.S. Republican Chris Smith left for
Thailand on Wednesday, vowing to
"make every effort" to get into
Myanmar and help secure the release of six Americans.
Smith, chairman of the House Subcommittee on International
Operations and Human Rights, said planned to apply for a
Myanmar
visa in Bangkok.
Smith told CNN early Friday that he is optimistic he will
get into the
country.
"The growing numbers of Americans and people around the
world are
concerned about the 18, this will bring incredible light and
scrutiny to
the military government in Rangoon," Smith said.
Not the first time
Earlier this year, the military government sentenced a
British national,
James Mawdsley, to five years in prison, also for handing
out
pro-democracy leaflets in Yangon. He was released after
three
months.
Mawdsley had been detained in 1997 for a similar action, but
was
deported with just a warning from the government not to
return.
Citizens of Myanmar, also known as Burma, rarely ever
receive an
attorney to defend them, democracy activists and human
rights groups
say. Trials usually consist of reading out the charges and
sentencing
the accused -- a process that often takes less than an hour,
they say.
The recent detainees are unlikely to receive that sort of
treatment,
however. Mawdsley was represented by a Myanmar lawyer at his
trial.
In 1995, the International Red Cross pulled out of Myanmar
in protest
because it was not allowed access to political prisoners.
Pressure increases over treatment of Suu Kyi
Meanwhile, international pressure is
growing against Myanmar's military
government over its treatment of key
opposition figure Aung San Suu Kyi.
Suu Kyi sat in a minivan on a country
road for a third day on Friday as part
of her campaign for democracy and
human rights.
The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner
and three other people are sitting in the vehicle on a small
wooden
bridge over a creek near Anyarsu, 20 miles west of Yangon.
The four
were stopped there by police on Wednesday on their way to
see
supporters in Pathein, 120 miles west of the capital.
The trip was a repeat of a visit in late July that led to a
similar six-day
standoff that was ended forcibly by government security men
on July
29.
The military has asked Suu Kyi to return to Yangon saying it
was not
safe on the road.
Despite growing international calls for change, Yangon has
rebuffed a
request by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to receive a
special
emissary to discuss "current developments," a U.N. spokesman
said
on Thursday.
"The response from the (Myanmar) prime minister was polite,
but
stated that there was no reason for such a rush to visit,"
U.N.
spokesman Juan Carlos Brandt said.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this
report