British Activist Is Sentenced in Myanmar
YANGON, Myanmar — A British activist was sentenced to 17 years in prison after trying to smuggle anti-government literature into Myanmar, the country’s military regime said Thursday.
James Rupert Russell Mawdsley, 26, was arrested Tuesday after crossing into Myanmar at Tachilek, on the border with Thailand. It was his third arrest in two years for making a personal bid to rally support against the government.
Anti-government activists are calling for a mass uprising Sept. 9, or 9-9-99, a date seen as auspicious in this numerology obsessed country. The government has acknowledged arresting nearly 40 activists. Opposition groups say the figure is much higher. Mawdsley is the only foreigner.
The pamphlets he carried into Myanmar, formerly Burma, urged soldiers and civil servants to disobey orders and work for democracy. They also appealed to the regime to free all political prisoners and reopen the universities, closed since protests in 1996.
A government spokesman said a five-year sentence imposed against Mawdsley last year for illegal entry, then suspended, had been reinstated.
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