AFP-Amnesty "appalled" at sentencin

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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.