Activists: Back Myanmar

[RANGOONP@xxxxxxx]

Activists: Back Myanmar Democracy

By GRANT PECK
 .c The Associated Press 

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Eighteen foreigners expelled from Myanmar on
Saturday for handing out pro-democracy leaflets urged support for the
country's human rights movement, while opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi
continued her own standoff with the nation's military regime. 

``We're really, really happy to be free and not be in Burma anymore,'' Sapna
Chattpar, a 21-year-old student from American University in Washington, said
in Bangkok. Myanmar also is known as Burma. 

``But the people of Burma who have done the exact same thing -- to fight for
human rights and democracy -- they are suffering today,'' she added. 

Relatives, friends and supporters mobbed and hugged Chattpar and the 17 others
at Bangkok's airport, draping them with garlands of flowers. 

In a one-day trial Friday, a judge convicted the six Americans, three
Indonesians, three Malaysians, three Thais, two Filipinos and an Australian of
violating an Emergency Provisions Act dating from 1950. They were sentenced to
five years of hard labor, but within minutes officials announced the sentences
were suspended and they would be deported. 

The Americans were Chattpar; Nisha Marie Anand, 21, of Atlanta; Joel Edward
Greer, 34, of New York; Anjanette Hamilton, 20, of Portsmouth, N.H.; Tyler
Gianini, 28, of Washington; and Michele Keegan, 19, of Hamilton Township, N.J.

At least four of them -- Keegan, Hamilton, Anand and Chattpar -- were expected
to return to the United States late Sunday or Monday. 

Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, meanwhile, remained parked at a
roadblock 19 miles west of Yangon for a fourth day. Authorities do not want
her to meet supporters of her party outside Yangon. 

Myanmar's military regime has accused her and the foreign activists of trying
to destabilize the state. 

Gen. Maung Aye, the army commander and one of the top four generals in
Myanmar's ruling State Peace and Development Council, said in a speech
reported by official newspapers Saturday that ``traitors'' were working with
foreign powers. 

No names were mentioned, but Maung Aye clearly was referring to Suu Kyi's
standoff and to the activists detained for almost a week for distributing
leaflets urging Myanmar's people to remember a failed 1988 uprising against
military rule. 

For foreign consumption, the government took a kinder and gentler line. Its
English-language press releases painted the foreign activists as misled young
people and indicated tolerance for Suu Kyi's action. 

A statement said the government was making ``every effort'' to ensure the
safety and comfort of Suu Kyi and her companions. The government said it had
provided them with soft drinks as well as a cassette player and tapes of
religious sermons and music by artists including Madonna and Michael Jackson. 

There was no indication that Suu Kyi, 53, had accepted any of the gifts. In
previous roadside confrontations, she has refused to take anything from -- or
even speak to -- security forces blocking her way. 

Two weeks ago, a six-day standoff at the same roadblock ended when Suu Kyi was
forcibly driven back to Yangon.