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Reuters-FOCUS-British woman activis



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Subject: Reuters-FOCUS-British woman activist due in Myanmar court 

FOCUS-British woman activist due in Myanmar court
11:25 p.m. Sep 14, 1999 Eastern
By Aung Hla Tun

YANGON, Sept 15 (Reuters) - A 28-year-old British woman arrested last week
for staging a pro-democracy protest in Myanmar was due in court in Yangon on
Wednesday morning.

A government official said Londoner Rachel Goldwyn, who was arrested on
September 7 after tying herself to a lamp-post in central Yangon and
shouting pro-democracy slogans, would appear before a special court but did
not say what charges she faced.

The British embassy said it had not been informed of the charges. She was
due to appear in court at 10 a.m. (0330 GMT), an embassy official told
Reuters.

He said the British consul had gone to the court and added: ``We are still
trying to arrange legal representation for her.''

The embassy said it had not received a reply to a request for British
ambassador John Jenkins to meet Deputy Foreign Minister Khin Maung Win to
discuss the case. The government said on Tuesday no such request had been
received.

Goldwyn, who has been held at Yangon's notorious Insein jail, was the second
Briton arrested in Myanmar for pro-democracy activism in just over a week.

On September 1 James Mawdsley, 26, from Lancashire, who also holds an
Australian passport, was jailed for 17 years in northeastern Myanmar after
entering the country illegally the previous day carrying pro-democracy
leaflets.

It was Mawdsley's third arrest in Myanmar. Last year he was sentenced to
five years jail for illegal entry but freed and deported after 99 days after
appeals by the embassies and his parents and a promise he would not return.

On Monday, the government's daily information sheet published a letter from
a Myanmar historian describing both Britons as ``criminal mercenaries.'' It
said Goldwyn entered Myanmar under false pretences bent on sedition and must
face the consequences.

Sedition is punished by stiff sentences in Myanmar and in the past local
activists have been dealt with under the Emergency Provisions Act which
carries a minimum seven-year sentence.

Local political analysts speculate Goldwyn could receive a long sentence,
which would then be suspended and she would be deported since it was her
first offence.

A British consular official was allowed to see her on Monday and reported
that she was in good spirits. The embassy said she was being well treated
and had access to a doctor.

On Wednesday, officials from the British and Australian embassies were due
to see Mawdsley in jail in the northeastern town of Kengtung. The British
consul was denied access to him after travelling to see him the weekend
after he was jailed.

The arrests came amid a government crackdown to thwart an uprising which
dissident exiles called for last week but which did not materialise.

Diplomats estimate authorities arrested more than 100 local activists in
Yangon and others in the provinces in the past month to prevent the
uprising. Dissidents put the number of arrests at about 500 while the
government has reported fewer than 40.

Myanmar's military does not tolerate dissent and has been widely criticised
for rights abuses since taking direct power in 1988 by killing thousands to
crush a pro-democracy uprising. It then ignored the last general election in
1990 when the opposition National League for Democracy won by a landslide.