Freed British activist arrives home from Myanmar prison

Freed political prisoner James Mawdsley arrives at an airport in Bangkok, Thailand

LONDON (Reuters) -- Activist James Mawdsley arrived back in Britain on Saturday after his release from a Myanmar prison, saying he would continue to campaign for human rights.

Mawdsley, who was released on Friday, said he wanted genocide charges brought against Myanmar's military rulers, people he described as "reptiles," and he appealed to the international community to step up its pressure.

Mawdsley said Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the opposition National League for Democracy, or NLD, had been "relentlessly and shamelessly persecuted," and that her courage had inspired him.

"The resources and money and effort that the junta put in to trying to destroy her is incredible. How can we from democracies turn our backs on that," he told a news conference at London's Heathrow Airport.

The NLD won elections in 1990 by a landslide but has never been allowed to govern.

"What I've been looking forward to doing is to sit and listen to people talking without fear. To be back in the UK and to hear people talking without fear is magic. It's a magic we forget," he said.

Mawdsley, who had served more than a year of a 17-year sentence for handing out pro-democracy leaflets in the military-ruled country, said he did not rule out a return to Myanmar.

Myanmar has warned Mawdsley will go back to jail if he returns to the country illegally. He had already been deported twice before being jailed last year.

"I've seen what I wanted to see and learnt what I wanted to learn and I want to build on that in other ways. But I'm drawn to Burma (Myanmar). It's not by the suffering, it's by the courage," he said.

The activist James Mawdsley spoke about his time in a Myanmar prison with great emotion

Britain said earlier this year that Mawdsley had been badly beaten in prison, suffering a broken nose and two black eyes. Myanmar said he had injured himself while struggling with prison guards trying to restrain him.

He told reporters life in prison had been difficult, but he had always expected to be freed within 18 months.

"Prison was hard, but physical conditions you can adapt to. It's the mental thing of never being able to get truth. Everyone's so afraid just to speak the truth, they have to think about everything," he said.

"I was relying on God for all my strength...so 14 months, no problem."

The surprise announcement earlier this week that Mawdsley would be freed, and the release of six elderly prisoners, have been interpreted as attempts by Myanmar's military government to offer concessions in the face of fierce international criticism.

But there has been no let up in its crackdown on the NLD.

Suu Kyi has been confined to her house, with her telephone cut and diplomatic access barred, for almost a month. Other senior NLD leaders face similar restrictions, and the party's vice chairman, U Tin Oo, is in detention.

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook welcomed Mawdsley's release.

"James's only crime was to highlight the suppression of ethnic minorities in Burma and to call for democratic change," he said in a statement.

Some Western diplomats in Yangon suggested Myanmar's rulers may have responded to pressure from other Association of South East Asian Nations, or ASEAN, members who have grown increasingly exasperated by the impact of world anger at Myanmar on their hopes of expanding their trade and international influence.

A planned meeting of ASEAN and European Union foreign ministers in Laos in December is under threat because of international anger at Myanmar's treatment of Suu Kyi.

The European Union has boycotted ministerial meetings with ASEAN since Myanmar was controversially admitted in 1997.

Diplomats said the release might also be linked to last week's visit to Myanmar by United Nations special envoy Razali Ismail, who met ministers and also held meetings with Suu Kyi.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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