Reuters-Myanmar sentences activists

[hlaing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Myanmar sentences activists to jail - witness 
09:25 a.m. Aug 14, 1998 Eastern 

YANGON, Myanmar (Reuters) - A court in Myanmar sentenced 18 foreign
activists, including six Americans, to five years jail with labor on
Friday, a witness in the courtroom said. 

The activists, arrested on August 9 for distributing pro-democracy leaflets
in Yangon, were given 90 days to appeal against the decision, the witness
said. 

The witness said the 18 -- six Americans, three Thais, three Malaysians,
three Indonesians, two Filipinos and an Australian -- had pleaded guilty to
the charges against them. He did not explain exactly what those charges
were. 

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Yangon said earlier the activists
were accused of breaking Myanmar's 1950 Emergency Act. She said it was
unclear exactly which provisions related to the offenses the police said
the activists had committed. 

The activists had handed out thousands of palm-sized red leaflets calling
on the people of Myanmar to remember an uprising against the military 10
years ago. Opposition supporters say thousands of people were killed in the
crackdown that followed the uprising on August 8, 1988. The government says
the death toll was only a few dozen. 

The detention of the activists has sparked an international campaign and
led the United States to urge their release. It has also focused world
attention on the campaign by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi for
democracy and human rights in the country.