Please send to all news agencies an

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Subject: Please send to all news agencies and press: James Mawdsley Today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dawn Star wrote:
> 
> TIN KYI wrote:
> >
> > INTERVIEW-Briton vows to fight on in Myanmar
> > 09:30 a.m. Dec 01, 1999 Eastern
> >
> > By David Brunnstrom
> >
> > BANGKOK, Dec 1 (Reuters) - A Briton serving 17 years for pro-democracy
> > activism in military-ruled Myanmar has not wavered in his convictions
> > and has no plans to appeal for early release, his mother said on
> > Wednesday.
> >
> > Diana Mawdsley said after her first visits to her son James since his
> > September arrest and jailing in remote northwestern Kengtung town that
> > he was keeping his spirits up with the Bible and works of Soviet
> > political prisoner Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
> >
> > ``James wants to fight on robustly. At the moment he has no plans to
> > make any sort of appeal.
> >
> > ``He says there's no judicial process as we know it in Burma and
> > whether he serves one month, one year, or seventeen years, it will be
> > up to the junta to decide,'' she told Reuters. ``But I would say as
> > his mother, I'd like to see him out of there.''
> >
> > James Mawdsley, 26, from Lancashire, was jailed after illegally
> > entering Myanmar in September to distribute pro-democracy leaflets. It
> > was his third arrest there in two years and the government has said he
> > could not expect mercy.
> >
> > His mother said he was ``very, very pale and pasty'' due to solitary
> > confinement for all but 30 minutes daily exercise, but otherwise
> > appeared in good health.
> >
> > ``He's not lost weight and is in cracking good spirits. He will not
> > make one single complaint about himself.''
> >
> > But he had complained to prison authorities about treatment of local
> > prisoners, who he said had been beaten by guards.
> >
> > Diana Mawdsley said she believed her son must sometimes feel deep
> > despair and loneliness. ``But he's determined not to worry us and
> > we're determined not to worry him. There must be a point at which we
> > all break, but at the moment James is nowhere near it.''
> >
> > Her son told her he had not been tortured while serving this term.
> > Last year after release from 99 days in Yangon's notorious Insein
> > Jail, he reported being beaten with bamboo poles, having staves rolled
> > down his shins and being deprived of water.
> >
> > She said he also praised fellow Briton Rachel Goldwyn, who has been
> > slammed by activists for refusing to criticise Myanmar's military.
> > Goldwyn was released after serving less than two months of a
> > seven-year jail term for an anti-government protest.
> >
> > James was being watched round the clock in his larger than average
> > cell -- by six guards in the daytime and two at night.
> >
> > After a prison inspection by Red Cross officials, he was given a piece
> > of wood as a seat for his lavatory bucket.
> >
> > James, deeply religious, was making a determined effort to keep clean
> > and intellectually alert in jail, and would dream of building a school
> > for refugees on the Thai-Myanmar border. ``That keeps him going, that
> > thought,'' she said.
> >
> > Mawdsley said she was grateful the government had allowed her four
> > hour-long visits to her son, but thought she could have been allowed
> > longer as she had come so far. Her husband plans a visit in January,
> > followed by her three other children.
> >
> > ``I told the military intelligence man that we planned to come every
> > two months and he looked absolutely appalled at the thought of this
> > wave of Mawdsleys coming over,'' she joked.