AFP-Myanmar still under pressure de

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Myanmar still under pressure despite releasing foreigners
Sat 15 Aug 98 - 03:42 GMT 

YANGON, Aug 15 (AFP) - Myamar's release of 18 foreign activists failed to
quell international pressure on the country's junta Saturday, as opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi again made a solitary bid for democracy in a
roadside stand-off with military officials.

The activists arrived in Bangkok Saturday after being deported for
attempting to incite unrest.

They were sentenced to five years hard labour by a court in Myanmar Friday
but the penalties were immediately suspended and they were ordered to be
deported, diplomats said.

The activists, detained last Sunday after handing out leaflets promoting
human rights and democracy, were expected to hold a press conference in
Bangkok later Saturday.

The move came after opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi spent a third night
in her car on a roadside near Yangon after being blocked from visiting
provincial supporters.

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, seeking Japan's support for her
democracy drive in Myanmar, said Friday the standoff with opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi had reached its "moment of truth."

"Aung San Suu Kyi is again asserting her basic right to move freely in her
country," said Albright at the outset of a meeting in Washington with
visiting Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura.

"This is a moment of truth in our effort to promote dialogue in Burma, an
effort we need to intensify in coming days," she said.

The presiding judge in Yangon told the activists they would have 90 days to
appeal the sentence and one of them immediately said he would appeal,
before the home affairs ministry stepped in and ordered the suspension,
witnesses said.

However, suspension of these sentences was conditional on the activists
pledging not to violate Myanmar law again, "refraining from acts
detrimental to the people of Myanmar," and accepting that if they broke the
law again here they would serve the five years with hard labour in addition
to any other penalties at the notorious Insein prison, an official said.

The suspension was ordered in "view of bilateral relations between Myanmar
and the relevant countries," the home ministry said.

The activists were rounded up Sunday while 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. Ten were male and eight
female.

All the activists were treated well during their detention, diplomats said.

The foreigners were charged under the country's emergency act with inciting
public unrest, for which the maximum penalty is 10 years imprisonment.

The White House welcomed Myanmar's release of the activists but warned
their detentions were but one example of Yangon's human rights abuses.

"While we are pleased that these American citizens will be returning to the
United States, we think this ought to serve as a reminder that there is an
absence of protection of basic human rights in Burma," said spokesman
Michael McCurry.

Aung San Suu Kyi meanwhile remained in her car blocked from travelling on a
rural highway in the fourth such standoff with the junta in little over a
month.

"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 the same spot on a small bridge some 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.

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.