Yangon demo by foreign activists "i

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Yangon demo by foreign activists "irrelevant": diplomats
Mon 17 Aug 98 - 05:52 GMT 

YANGON, Aug 17 (AFP) - A brief protest by foreign activists against
Myanmar's junta had no significant impact here and attention remains fixed
on the opposition National League for Democracy party of Nobel peace
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, diplomats and analysts said.

Although praised by rights groups when they were deported to Bangkok
Saturday after six days' detention, the 18 foreign pro-democracy activists
were branded "naive" and "irrelevant" by some diplomats, including a number
whose governments firmly oppose the junta.



"They might have won a lot of support overseas but it was all pretty
irrelevant here," said one western diplomat.



"If anything they might have done their cause within the country more harm
than good," the diplomat added, referring to state media reports which said
the foreigners had travelled to Myanmar to incite unrest.



"I can't think of any country in the region where locals welcome foreigners
coming in to stir things up."



The activists were detained on August 9 after they tried to hand out
leaflets in central Yangon promoting human rights and democracy.



"I don't think anyone kept the leaflets," another western diplomat said,
citing witness reports. "They would've dropped them straight away even if
they were interested in the first place."



The diplomats also disputed claims by some activists that they were
mistreated before being deported after being sentenced to five years
imprisonment with hard labour at a trial Friday. The sentences were
immediately suspended but would be enforced if they reoffended, offficials
warned.



"They were certainly better off than most people in Myanmar," said a
diplomat from the embassy of another Asian state, dismissing complaints
about lack of running water as ridiculous.



"They were naive if they thought they wouldn't be caught, they were naive
if they thought they could just walk away and they were extremely naive if
they thought being detained would mean spending a few days in a five-star
hotel."



Power and water supplies, where they exist at all, are intermittent in much
of Myanmar, one of the world's poorest countries.



The activists were rounded up while handing out pamphlets urging people to
remember the 10th anniversary of a bloody military crackdown on
pro-democracy demonstrators on August 8, 1988.



The detainees were six US nationals, three Thais, three Malaysians, three
Indonesians, two Filipinos and one Australian.



Although the protest drew international media attention, opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party ignored
the activists.



The Nobel peace laureate launched her own demonstration Wednesday, making
her fourth failed attempt to visit supporters in the provinces in little
more than a week.



The junta has said it cannot allow her to proceed further for her own
safety as there are security problems in the area. However she is free to
return home to Yangon at any time, it said.



Her van is now at the scene of last month's confrontation -- a small bridge
some 25 kilometres (15 miles) outside Yangon -- but this time she has
brought extra supplies, diplomats said.



A junta spokesman said an ambulance was at the site and security personnel
have been deployed to protect her.



In a statement on Saturday, a junta spokesman added that efforts were being
made to make her roadside stay as comfortable as possible and that she had
been provided with a tape player and Western music cassettes by Madonna and
Michael Jackson.



The NLD won 1990 polls in Myanmar by a landslide but the junta has refused
to give up power. The party has demanded that the junta convene the
parliament elected then by August 21 or face unspecified consequences.



"Now we have the foreigners' thing out of the way, we are all waiting for
August 21," said another western diplomat.



"Something has to give. It may not be a big deal but both sides are so set
in their positions that there will be a confrontation of some kind."