AFP-US legislator heads to Myanmar

[hlaing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

US legislator heads to Myanmar in bid to free Americans
Wed 12 Aug 98 - 19:08 GMT 

WASHINGTON, Aug 12 (AFP) - An American legislator left Wednesday for
Myanmar to seek the release of six US nationals detained for distributing
pro-democracy leaflets in the military-ruled country, his office said.

Representative Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey, departed after
consulting with the family of one of the detained Americans, 19-year-old
Michele Keegan, whose hometown is in Smith's district.

Keegan was one of 18 foreigners arrested Sunday in the Myanmar capital,
Yangon, for passing out pro-democracy leaflets. The United States has
demanded that the junta immediately release all the Americans.

Smith "talked to the ambassador here (Tin Winn) for quite some time" on
Tuesday, his spokesman Ken Wolfe said. "The ambassador tried to discourage
him from going."

"All we're asking for is to let them leave the country," Wolfe said. Smith,
expected to arrive in Yangon on Friday, is traveling with one aide, Grover
Joseph Rees, and neither has yet obtained a visa.

Whether Smith was traveling with the blessing of the State Department
wasn't immediately clear. But the US embassy in Yangon earlier said
Washington wanted a "prompt resolution and release of those detained."

The group was 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.

"We regard the passing out of leaflets as a normal and natural activity and
freedom of expression in our country," a US embassy spokesman said. "These
were simply benign statements."

Smith will also urge the junta to release the other 12 detained foreigners:
two Filipinos, three Thais, three Malaysians, three Indonesians, and one
Australian. Ten are male and eight female

The junta has declined to comment on the possible outcome of the case
against the 18, who could be charged under three separate laws providing
for stiff prison terms.