Burma imprisons six activists

SIX labour activists in military-run Burma have been sentenced to up to 28 years in prison for organising a seminar at a US embassy centre, a defence lawyer said yesterday.

Four were former members of Burma's opposition party, the National League for Democracy, headed by detained democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

"They received jail terms yesterday at a Western district court for sedition and organising an unlawful gathering," lawyer Aung Thein, a party member, said. The six activists, all men in their mid-20s and early 30s, planned to hold a labour rights seminar with 50 workers at the US embassy's American Centre in Rangoon. The embassy could not be reached for comment.

Burma's military, which has ruled with an iron fist for 45 years, does not tolerate even the slightest show of public dissent.

Its recent crackdown on a rare string of protests against a big increase in fuel prices has sparked global condemnation, with US President George Bush accusing Burma's generals of "tyrannical" behaviour.

Burma's junta blamed the opposition for inciting unrest and instigating Buddhist monks to take part in growing protests over the fuel price rises, state media reported.