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Breaking News (Myanmar put Foreign



Myanmar puts foreign activists on trial for allegedly inciting unrest
Fri 14 Aug 98 - 11:17 GMT
YANGON, Aug 14 (AFP) - Myanmar's junta dismissed international pressure and
put 18
foreign activists on trial here Friday for allegedly breaching a national
security law which carries
a maximum 10-year jail sentence.
The 18 appeared at a court at Yangon's infamous Insein prison, with embassy
officials and
foreign journalists allowed to be present.
"I can confirm they are in court now and our representatives are also there
but we have no
further details at this stage," said one of the diplomats whose nationals are
among the detainees.
Diplomats said all 18 foreigners were charged under the Emergency Act of 1960,
understood
to carry a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment.
Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan Friday said he was optimistic the Myanmar
court, which
began deliberating the case Friday morning, would reach its verdict the same
day.
"Justice delayed, justice denied," Surin told reporters after meeting
relatives of detainees from
the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Australia at the foreign ministry.
He said Thai embassy officials in Yangon were attending the hearing and he was
regularly
consulting his Association of Southeast Asian Nationscounterparts to resolve
the issue.
"The Thai government is very concerned and is sparing no effort to help
resolve the matter,"
Surin added.
The activists were rounded up Sunday handing out pamphlets here urging people
to remember
the 10th anniversary of a bloody military crackdown on pro-democracy
demonstrators on
August 8, 1988.
The pamphlets also promoted human rights and democracy.
The detainees were six US nationals, three Thais, three Malaysians, three
Indonesians, two
Filipinos and one Australian, according to Myanmar's junta. Ten were male and
eight female.
On Friday the families of some of the detainees held a press conference in
Bangkok to demand
their immediate release.
US congressman Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey who arrived in the
Thai capital
Thursday on a mission to release the US detainees, attended the briefing and
said he hoped to
travel to Myanmar soon.
Both Smith and the families were due to return to the Myanmar embassy later
Friday to see if
their visa applications had been approved.
Foreign diplomats thought it unlikely Smith would be granted entry but said
the families would
probably be allowed into Myanmar.
Some diplomats in Yangon said the six detained Americans were rumoured to have
been
deported to Bangkok, but embassy officials at the courthouse confirmed they
were there at
0600 GMT.
It remained unclear if the charges against the activists were merely a
formality and they would
be immediately deported after trial or whether they would go to prison.
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi meanwhile was blocked in her car on a rural
highway for
the third day -- the fourth such standoff with the junta.
"It seems she is still there and they have plenty of supplies. It is basically
the same situation as
before," a western embassy official said.
He was referring to a six-day roadside standoff which ended when the junta
forcibly drove her
home on July 29 after she tried to meet supporters outside Yangon.
She is now in almost the same spot about 25 kilometres (15 miles) outside
Yangon, diplomats
said, but this time she is in a mini-van rather than a sedan and has brought
extra supplies.
A junta spokesman said an ambulance was at the site and security personnel had
been
deployed to protect her.
Washington and Britain on Thursday warned the junta to ensure she was looked
after and
called for the two sides to hold talks.
"We are gravely concerned about the health and safety of Aung San Suu Kyi and
hold the
Burmese authorities responsible for ensuring her health and welfare," said
State Department
deputy spokesman James Foley.
The US embassy in Yangon has asked for permission for officials to travel to
the site "to
observe the situation and speak with Aung San Suu Kyi," said Foley. There has
been no reply
yet.
Britain's Foreign Office minister Derek Fatchett echoed the call saying the
travel restrictions
imposed on her should be lifted.
"I deeply regret that the Burmese regime should, instead of opening dialogue
with the National
League for Democracy (NLD) and other democratic leaders, yet again have chosen
to stop
Aung San Suu Kyi freely travelling around Burma," Fatchett said in a
statement.
The NLD won 1990 polls by a landslide but the junta has refused to relinquish
power. The
NLD has set the junta an August 21 deadline for convening parliament or face
unspecified
consequences.