Amnesty "appalled" at sentencing of

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Amnesty "appalled" at sentencing of foreign activists in Myanmar

       Fri 14 Aug 98 - 16:39 GMT 

       LONDON, Aug 14 (AFP) - Amnesty International said Friday it was
"appalled" at the five year hard labour sentences passed on 18 foreign
pro-democracy activists in Myanmar but "pleased" all were due to be deported
Saturday.

       Donna Guest, a spokeswoman for the human rights group said: "They
should never have been arrested in the first place. They were sentenced under
a law which is very vague..."

       The activists were rounded up Sunday as they were handing out pamphlets
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.

       Guest added the fact that a lot of the activists were from Asian
nations would "surely further complicate Burma's relationship with its fellow
ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations group) members, Indonesia,
Malaysia and Thailand".

       Speaking of domestic political prisoners, Guest said: "We are also
concerned about the hundreds of Burmese prisoners of conscience who remain in
prison in Burma under terrible conditions.

       "It is important that the international community doesn't forget all
these Burmese people who weren't as lucky as the others."

       She also referred to the roadside stand-off between oppostion leader
Aung San Suu Kyi and security forces, who stopped her travelling as she tried
to visit fellow members of the National League for Democracy (NLD).

       "We ask the Burmese to exercise restraint in the coming days and to
allow Suu Kyi to go visit her collegues," said Guest.

                                                                              
          ©AFP 1998

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