U.S. Lawmaker, Family, Pressure on

[RANGOONP@xxxxxxx]

BANGKOK, Aug 14 (Reuters) - A U.S. politician and families of 18 foreign pro-
democracy activists held in Myanmar demanded on Friday the military government
release the group immediately. 

New Jersey Republican Representative Chris Smith, chairman of the House Sub-
Committee on International Operations and Human Rights, said there was growing
pressure in the United States for the activists to be let go. 

The 18 -- six Americans, three Thais, three Malaysians, three Indonesians, two
Filipinos and an Australian -- were taken to a Yangon court hearing on Friday
where they were accused of offenses under part of Myanmar's sweeping 1950
Emergency Act. 

``We are demanding the immediate and unconditional release of these young
people,'' Smith told a news conference in the Thai capital Bangkok. 

``Every hour that goes by, the anger of the American people is increasing.
They will join forces and unite with the democratic people of the rest of the
world to put pressure on the Myanmar government,'' he said. 

The activists were picked up by police in Yangon on Sunday after handing out
thousands of palm-sized red leaflets asking the people of Myanmar to remember
an uprising of pro-democracy supporters in Yangon on August 8, 1988. 

Opposition supporters say thousands of Myanmar citizens were killed by troops
in the bloody crackdown that followed the uprising on August 8, 1988. The
government puts the death toll at only a few dozen. 

``We share the concern about the young people who are on trial in Burma
(Myanmar) and all of us are hoping for a positive outcome,'' Smith told
Reuters after holding talks with Thai deputy Foreign Minister, Sukhumphan
Bharipat. 

Smith earlier met relatives of some of the detainees from Australia, the
Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia, who had gone to Bangkok to try to get
visas to enter Myanmar. 

``My son did nothing wrong in Burma, so the military government should
immediately release him and his friend,'' said Eva Sana, mother of Ellena Sana
from the Philippines. ``Six days is long enough for this kind of treatment.'' 

Greg Vicary, brother of Australian academic Alison Vicary, threatened to
organise demonstrations to press the Myanmar military to release his sister. 

``If the Burmese government continues to detain my sister and the other human
rights activists, we will organise a mass rally in Sydney where everyone will
get involved. Things will escalate, if the Burmese government wants,'' Vicary
said. 

Smith said Myanmar should begin a dialogue with opposition leader and 1991
Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi on the future of the country. 

Suu Kyi and two drivers were stopped by police in their van west of Yangon on
Wednesday on their way to visit supporters of her National League for
Democracy (NLD) and were still halted on the road on Friday, the local sources
said. 

``It is the desire of the international community that the political tension
in Rangoon (Yangon) ceases and hopefully turns into a dialogue with the pro-
democracy people,'' Smith said. 

``Dialogue is the solution not guns,'' he added. 

His Thai counterpart Sukhumphan was optimistic on the outcome of the trial and
urged everyone to wait and see the outcome before making a move. 

``The 18 are being tried right now and we should wait and see what is going to
happen. But we are optimistic that things will turn out in the best interests
of everyone,'' Sukhumphan said. 

Smith said it would be premature to say what the United States would do if
Myanmar refused to give up the activists. 

He said he had applied for a visa to visit Myanmar twice in the last three
days but had only been told the visa was ``under consider