Paranoid SPDC & Precations they've

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Briton arrested for illegal entry into Myanmar

 .c Kyodo News Service    

YANGON, May 8 (Kyodo) - A British national was arrested April 30 in the Mon
state capital of Mawlamyaing, 160 kilometers east of Yangon, for entry into
Myanmar without valid travel documents, a government newspaper reported Friday. 

Interrogated by immigration officials in Mawlamyaing, James Rupert Russell
Mawdsley admitted that he worked for the All-Burma Student Democratic Front
(ABSDF) rebel group, The New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported. 

He went to Bangkok in April and traveled to the Thai border town of Maesod,
where he was met by an ABSDF rebel identified as Thurein, who gave him
antigovernment pamphlets, the paper reported. 

Both then went to the border and met Karen National Union (KNU) rebel
division commander Htein Maung, and the rebels took him to Myanmar through
the jungle. When he reached Mawlamyaing, Mawdsley, who left his passport
with Thurein, was arrested by police, it said. 

Mawdsley told immigration officials that he holds British and Autralian
citizenship. 

According to the state newspaper, Mawdsley was previously arrested in Yangon
and deported Sept. 17, 1997, when he demonstrated in Yangon and distributed
rebel propaganda leaflets. He then held a British passport. Mawdsley faces
prosecution under the immigration law, the newspaper added. 

AP-NY-05-07-98 2338EDT