AFP-Myanmar deports foreigners as s

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Myanmar deports foreigners as stand-off continues
Sat 15 Aug 98 - 07:42 GMT 

YANGON, Aug 15 (AFP) - Myanmar deported 18 foreign pro-democracy activists
Saturday as opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi dug in for the fourth day of
a roadside stand-off with the ruling military.

The activists arrived in Bangkok reaffirming their support for Myanmar's
pro-democracy movement, but saying they had been well treated since they
were arrested six days.

They 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.

"We were treated like kings and queens, had wonderful living quarters, fans
and air-con ... everything we wanted," US student Sapna Chhattpar, 20, told
reporters at Bangkok's airport.

"But it's hard to be happy when the people of Burma who have done the same
things we have are still under attack."

Their release came after opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi began a fourth
day in her van on a roadside near Yangon after being blocked from visiting
provincial supporters.

Diplomats said the van, also carrying two drivers and an official from her
National League for Democracy (NLD), has been towed to a bridge where she
spent six days in a similar confrontation last month.

"It looks like nothing has changed and we're going through the same thing
as last time, though this one could be longer," said one western diplomat,
referring to the previous stand-off which ended when the Nobel peace
laureate was forcibly taken back to her home on July 29.

It is her fourth failed attempt to travel to meet provincial supporters in
little over a month. The junta has said it cannot allow her to proceed
further for her own safety as there are security problems in the area.

Her van is now at the scene of last month's confrontation -- a small bridge
some 25 kilometres (15 miles) outside Yangon -- but this time she has
brought extra supplies, diplomats said.

A junta spokesman said an ambulance was at the site and security personnel
have been deployed to protect her.

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Friday the standoff with Aung
San Suu Kyi had reached its "moment of truth."

"Aung San Suu Kyi is again asserting her basic right to move freely in her
country," said Albright at a meeting in Washington with visiting Japanese
Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura.

"This is a moment of truth in our effort to promote dialogue in Burma, an
effort we need to intensify in coming days," she said.

At their trial on Friday, the presiding judge in Yangon told the 18
activists they would have 90 days to appeal the jail sentence. But the
authorities intervened to order the suspension, witnesses said.

However the suspension of the sentences was conditional on the activists
pledging not to violate Myanmar law again and "refraining from acts
detrimental to the people of Myanmar," said an official.

He said the activists also had to accept that if they broke the law again
here they would serve the five years in addition to any other penalties at
the notorious Insein prison.

The suspension was ordered in "view of bilateral relations between Myanmar
and the relevant countries," the home ministry said.

The activists were rounded up Sunday while handing out pamphlets urging
people to remember the 10th anniversary of a bloody military crackdown on
pro-democracy demonstrators on August 8, 1988.

The detainees were six US nationals, three Thais, three Malaysians, three
Indonesians, two Filipinos and one Australian.

The foreigners were charged under the country's emergency act with inciting
public unrest, for which the maximum penalty is 10 years imprisonment.

The White House welcomed the release of the activists but also issued a
warning to Yangon.

"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.

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.