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NEWS - 200 Myanmar Students Given L
- Subject: NEWS - 200 Myanmar Students Given L
- From: Rangoonp@xxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 05 Feb 1999 20:09:00
Subject: NEWS - 200 Myanmar Students Given Long Prison Sentences
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Report: 200 Myanmar Students Given Long Prison Sentences
AP
04-FEB-99
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- More than 200
Myanmar university students were sentenced to 14
years in prison each late last month, a group of
exiled Myanmar lawyers said Thursday.
Myanmar's military government did not immediately
respond to requests for confirmation of the
sentences.
The Burma Lawyers Council said it had received
information from inside Myanmar, also known as
Burma, that the sentences were handed down Jan.
18.
"Lengthy jail sentences are imposed to silence the
opposition and do not reflect any crimes that are
alleged to have been committed," the lawyers said.
Some student leaders were given sentences of up
to 52 years in prison, the council said, adding the
students had been arrested for supporting
opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's attempt to
convene parliament. Suu Kyi won a Nobel Peace
prize for her pro-democracy efforts.
"Such ridiculously lengthy sentences imposed for
seeking basic human rights makes a mockery of
justice in Burma?" the lawyers said. "Trials are
brief, farcical and convictions inevitable, as they
are predetermined by the military."
Nearly 1,000 members of Suu Kyi's political party,
the National League for Democracy, and other
supporters were arrested to prevent the parliament
from convening.
The NLD won 82 percent of the seats in the
legislative body in a 1990 election, but the military
refused to honor the result.