Myanmar junta accuses top activists of terrorism

By Aung Hla Tun

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's military junta accused 13 detained dissidents of terrorism on Saturday, suggesting it would impose long jail sentences on some of those suspected of being behind two weeks of protests against soaring fuel prices.

"The terrorists will be exposed and legal action will be taken against them," the former Burma's ruling generals said in a rare public statement on state-run radio and television.

The announcement, accompanied by a lengthy account of the group's alleged subversion, came a day after six people who ran a May Day labour rights seminar at the American Center in Yangon were sentenced to at least 20 years for sedition -- the maximum penalty for plotting against the state.

Most of the 13 are leaders of the so-called "88 Generation Students Group" which spearheaded a nationwide uprising against decades of military rule in 1988. Up to 3,000 people are thought to have died when troops were sent in to crush the movement.

Min Ko Naing, the most prominent dissident figure after detained opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, is among the 13.

Family sources were checking rumours sweeping through opposition ranks that Ko Jimmy, one of those arrested in a series of midnight raids on Aug. 21, had died in police custody.

Some analysts said the rumours might be a junta ruse to flush out his wife, Ma Nilar, who has gone into hiding. The couple have a four-month-old daughter.