[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index ][Thread Index ]

London - Reuters-Myanmar frees Brit



Reply-To: "TIN KYI" <tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: London - Reuters-Myanmar frees British activist from jail early 

Myanmar frees British activist from jail early
04:55 a.m. Nov 01, 1999 Eastern
By Lyndsay Griffiths

LONDON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - A British woman jailed for seven years in Myanmar
after staging a pro-democracy protest was freed on Monday after serving less
than two months in prison.

Britain's Foreign Office put Rachel Goldwyn's early release down to ``quiet
diplomacy'' and said the 28-year-old Londoner was now celebrating with her
parents in Myanmar.

``Rachel was released today. Obviously this is welcome news to her and her
family,'' said a Foreign Office spokesman.

Human rights worker Goldwyn was jailed in September for ``endangering state
security'' after she tied herself to a lamp post in Yangon, shouting and
singing pro-democracy slogans.

Goldwyn's September 7 solo protest earned her seven years with labour -- a
sentence that stunned her family.

``I'm thrilled. It's fantastic,'' said her sister Naomi Rose after the
Foreign Office woke her with the news that Goldwyn was now free. Rose told
BBC radio the two months had ``been like two years to me'' and called her
sister's release a total surprise.

Goldwyn is now with her parents in Myanmar and is set to fly back to her
suburban southwest London home in a few days.

The Foreign Office spokesman did not say why the authorities in Myanmar,
formerly Burma, had opted for an early release, saying only: ``This is a
matter which has been resolved by quiet diplomacy by all parties.''

Britain had urged military-ruled Myanmar to hear Goldwyn's appeal as soon as
possible and had expressed concern about both the handling of the case and
severity of the sentence.

Myanmar's military does not tolerate dissent and has been widely criticised
for rights abuses since taking direct power in 1988 by killing thousands in
a pro-democracy uprising.

It ignored the 1990 general election, which the opposition National League
for Democracy won by a landslide, and has since tried to suppress dissent
through arrests and intimidation.

Goldwyn had admitted the protest -- her first offence in Myanmar -- but
insisted her aim was not to stir unrest.

``I wasn't trying to incite others,'' she said before her sentencing. ``I
was just trying to show the extent of control, not to undermine security.''

She has been held at Yangon's notorious Insein Jail, past home to many
political prisoners. The embassy has said she was being well treated but the
spokesman had no comment on her health or spirits on Monday.

``We've been visiting her on a regular basis and giving her prison
comforts,'' said the Foreign Office spokesman.

While Goldwyn is due home soon, she leaves behind fellow activist James
Mawdsley, a British man who was jailed in September for 17 years for his
pro-democracy activities.