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Blair Govt Invisible on Securing Ma
Subject: Blair Govt Invisible on Securing Mawdsley release
> David Mawdsley said yesterday: "We are asking this Government to recognise
> that there is a major
> crisis going on out there. I am critical of Robin Cook because he has not
> issued one statement of
> support [of James]. I am critical of a Government which stated in their
> pre-election speeches that they
> would conduct an ethical foreign policy and it does not seem to mean very
> much to me."
David Arnott wrote:
>
> THE JOURNAL (Newcastle, UK)
>
> November 9, 1999
>
> Mother arrives in Burma to visit jailed activist son - Meeting allowed for
> one hour
>
> BYLINE: by Michael Wood
>
>
> COUNTY Durham mother Diana Mawdsley has arrived in Burma to visit her
> son James, who is
> serving a 17-year sentence for handing out pro-democracy pamphlets.
>
> Mrs Mawdsley, of Brancepeth, who arrived in the capital Rangoon over the
> weekend, was due to take
> the first available flight to Keng Tung, 390 miles away. She has permission
> to visit her son for one hour.
>
> James, 26, was arrested on August 31 at a town on the border with Thailand,
> for illegal entry and
> passing out literature encouraging people to demonstrate against the
> military regime in Burma.
>
> He had been arrested in Burma twice before, and last year served 99 days of
> a seven-year sentence.
> After his release - granted after he signed an agreement not to enter the
> country again - he said he had
> been tortured.
>
> The news came on the day that fellow human rights activist Rachel Goldwyn
> arrived home after being
> released early from a seven-year jail sentence in Burma.
>
> But while the Foreign Office took credit for the "quiet diplomacy" which
> secured her release, James's
> father accused Foreign Secretary Robin Cook of not doing enough to
> highlight Burma's brutal regime.
>
> David Mawdsley said yesterday: "We are asking this Government to recognise
> that there is a major
> crisis going on out there. I am critical of Robin Cook because he has not
> issued one statement of
> support [of James]. I am critical of a Government which stated in their
> pre-election speeches that they
> would conduct an ethical foreign policy and it does not seem to mean very
> much to me."
>
> Mr Mawdsley, who called for sanctions to be imposed on Burma, added that he
> did not see any short-
> term prospect of release for James. He said: "James is in control of the
> situation. He does not want to
> come out at the moment. He went into Burma and chose to be arrested - he
> wants to give the Burmese
> people and political prisoners his moral support."
>
> As she returned home to Surrey yesterday, Rachel, 28, gave an insight into
> the kind of conditions James
> may be held in when she talked of her time in jail. "Having carefully
> concealed my emotions since my
> arrest I sat alone in my cell and cried all night," she said of the day she
> realised she had been sentenced
> to seven years.
>
> "I had thought that I would be deported following the trial and was
> horrified when it became clear they
> meant me to serve my sentence." She said that at times she could handle the
> situation well, but she
> became depressed because of the continuous surveillance and the notes which
> were taken about
> everything she did.
>
> Ms Goldwyn said she was eventually allowed access to books and was
> delighted when her mother and
> father visited her.
>
> She wrote, through them, to the authorities explaining that she wanted to
> use her life to help the poorest
> people of Burma and that she could do independent research on the subject
> if released.
>
> "The offer was accepted. I was released and I'm shortly to return to the
> country to examine the
> counter-narcotics measures."
>
> Comment: Page 10
>
> GRAPHIC: Two activists: Left, James Mawdsley. Right, Rachel Goldwyn with
> her parents, Charmian
> and Edward, after her arrival at Heathrow Airport.
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