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Freed activists urge support for My
- Subject: Freed activists urge support for My
- From: byva@xxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1998 07:50:00
Freed activists urge support
for Myanmar pro-democracy
movement
By GRANT PECK
The Associated Press
08/16/98 1:25 AM Eastern
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 early
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.
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