US condemns Myanmar sentences

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081112/pl_afp/myanmarpoliticsdemocracyuscondemn_081112170855

Wed Nov 12, 12:08 pm ET
Featured Topics: Barack Obama Presidential Transition AFP/File – Heavily armed police block off a street in downtown Yangon in 2007. The US State Department on Wednesday … WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US State Department on Wednesday strongly condemned Myanmar's "harsh sentencing" of dozens of political activists.

"The United States strongly condemns the Burmese regime's harsh sentencing of at least 30 political activists to between two and 65 years in prison," State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood told reporters.

The State Department refers to Myanmar as Burma, the country's name before the military junta started calling it Myanmar in 1989.

"These brave democracy activists are peaceful citizens whose only crime was to challenge the regime's illegitimate rule," Wood told the daily news briefing.

More than 30 activists were imprisoned this week, ranging from pro-democracy veterans to a popular blogger, in the wake of a crackdown on people involved in protests in mid-2007 that were brutally crushed by the military government.

"We further condemn the manner in which the trials were conducted. The regime held closed-court sessions and did not allow family members or lawyers to attend," Wood said, reading a statement.



"We reiterate our call for the regime to cease harassing and arresting civilians for peacefully exercising their internationally recognized human rights," he added.

"We also call on the regime to begin a genuine dialogue with democratic and ethnic minority representatives and to immediately release all of Burma's over 2,000 political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi and those convicted in recent days," he said.

Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but Myanmar's junta never allowed them to take office.

She has spent most of the intervening years under house arrest in the country, which has been ruled by the military since 1962.

She is among more than 2,000 political prisoners in Myanmar, according to Amnesty International.

The US Campaign for Burma meanwhile urged Washington to convene an emergency UN Security Council meeting to formulate an international response to Myanmar, including imposing an arms embargo.

When asked whether the US government would push for such a meeting, Wood replied: "I don't want to talk about what we may or may not do, but we obviously are going to raise this issue at various levels."