More arrest in Burma UPDATES

[nin@xxxxxx]

 *** Eds: UPDATES in grafs 9-12, 16 with Burmese Embassy detailing
           charges, sentences in earlier arrests ***

   RANGOON, Burma (AP) _ The military regime has arrested 19 people
for allegedly plotting with India-based supporters of pro-democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi to destabilize the country, state-run media
reported Thursday.
   Two of those arrested are members of Suu Kyi's National League
for Democracy, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.
   The league has been under pressure since May, when Suu Kyi
defied mass arrests and held a party congress. The Nobel Peace
Prize winner, freed from six years of house arrest in 1995, has
been left alone but the arrests are eroding her organization.
   The newspaper claimed that the India-based expatriate wing of
the party, led by Tin Soe, was planning to train Burmese activists
in ``political defiance'' and to establish a clandestine dissident
cell in Monywa, 600 kilometers (400 miles) northwest of Rangoon.
   The suspects were allegedly involved in the plot and also
distributed leaflets the newspaper said were intended to undermine
government programs to develop the country, one of Asia's poorest,
and a pro-military convention to draft a new constitution.
   It was unclear when the arrests were made.
   The league members arrested were identified as Doe Htaung and
Khun Myint Tun.
   The arrests were announced a week after Suu Kyi's personal
secretary, Win Htein, was sentenced to seven years in prison in a
separate case.
   A statement Thursday from the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok,
Thailand, said Win Htein had conspired with four other people _
named as Po Aye, Htein Lin, Hla Tun Aung and Kan Shein _ to gather
misleading information about conditions in the countryside.
   It said the information, including a videotape, was to be given
to Suu Kyi and sent to the U.N. Human Rights Commission to
``trick'' it into believing forced labor was being used.
   The U.S. government, the U.N.'s International Labor
Organization, and a number of human rights groups have accused the
government of using forced labor on a vast scale for infrastructure
projects.
   The statement said the five were tried and found guilty on Aug.
15 ``of spreading false information to destabilize the existing
peace and tranquillity in the country.'' Each received a seven-year
jail term.
   The statement, a response to news stories published Thursday,
was unusual because the government in the past has failed to make
public details of political trials.
   In May, the regime arrested 262 of Suu Kyi's supporters to
derail the party congress on the sixth anniversary of parliamentary
elections that the opposition won overwhelmingly. The ruling State
Law and Order Restoration Council never honored the result.
   Most of those arrested in May have since been released, but
Burmese authorities have continued to arrest key league activists.
   Convicted prisoners serve their terms at Rangoon's notorious
Insein Prison, condemned by human-rights groups for the regular use
of torture and poor food and medical care.
   The embassy statement also named three other people who received
a total of 10 years in prison for forming illegal youth
organizations and distributing anti-government documents and
videotapes.

221329 Aug GMT