Activist Freed From Myanmar Prison

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Monday November 1 6:43 AM ET

Activist Freed From Myanmar Prison

                  YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - A British activist sentenced to 
seven years
                  in prison after singing a pro-democracy song against 
Myanmar's military
                  regime was released today after serving less than two 
months.

                  Rachel Goldwyn, 28, from Barnes in southwest London, was 
freed from
                  Yangon's notorious Insein prison, where hundreds of 
political prisoners
                  are held, in what the British Foreign Office called ``a 
victory for quiet
                  diplomacy.''

``Since Rachel was jailed, we have been in constant contact with the Burmese 
authorities and
have been able to pass her essentials, such as soap and other health 
materials,'' a Foreign Office
spokesman said in London on customary condition of anonymity.

The Myanmar government, which keeps a tight lid on dissent and has been 
quick to arrest
foreigners who stage overt protests, confirmed the release and said in a 
statement that Goldwyn
and her parents had left for a sightseeing trip upcountry.

``During her detention she was given books,'' a government spokesman said on 
customary
condition of anonymity. ``She is in good health.''

The spokesman said officials will not yet consider clemency for another 
jailed British activist,
James Mawdsley, who is serving a 17-year sentence after being arrested a 
third time for
protesting against the regime.

The British diplomat said Goldwyn signed an undertaking not to again get 
involved in political
activities in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

Goldwyn's parents arrived in Yangon over a month ago to pursue an appeal 
against their
daughter's sentence.

They had been visiting her every other day in Insein prison, where Goldwyn 
was reportedly
detained in solitary confinement. She was jailed on Sept. 16 to serve seven 
years with labor,
though she was not actually forced to work, the spokesperson said.

Goldwyn was arrested after chaining herself to a lamppost and shouting and 
singing
pro-democracy slogans and songs in downtown Yangon on Sept. 7. She drew a 
crowd of
about 1,000 people.

Myanmar authorities saw that as a threat to national security, ahead of 
9-9-99 day on Sept. 9,
when anti-Yangon dissidents planned a popular uprising against military 
rule, which failed to take
off.

The other British prisoner, Mawdsley, 26, of Lancashire, was arrested for 
the third time by
Myanmar officials as he passed out leaflets in advance of a key 
pro-democracy movement
anniversary in September. He had promised to stay out of Myanmar after his 
last arrest, but
returned in violation of the promise.

The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962. An uprising was crushed in 
bloodshed in 1988 but
vaulted Aung San Suu Kyi to the forefront of the pro-democracy movement.

While serving what became six years of house arrest, she won the Nobel Peace 
Prize in 1991
for her nonviolent promotion of democracy, and Mawdsley and others have said 
they are
inspired by her struggle.

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