Rachel Goldwyn, 28, from Barnes, London, was shocked by the sentence by the court in Rangoon, which found her guilty of "undermining peace, security and stability". She had expected to be expelled. She told her parents earlier in a letter: "Please know that I'll be home in about two weeks' time. I'll be deported to Bangkok pretty soon."
Last night the foreign office said it was shocked at the severity of the sentence, which follows that of James Mawdsley, 26, sentenced this month to 17 years for entering Burma illegally and distributing political literature. A spokesman said that the ambassador in Rangoon was seeking an appointment with the Burmese authorities to discuss Ms Goldwyn's and Mr Mawdsley's cases. The junta denies trying to make an example of the two Britons.
Ms Goldwyn was arrested on September 7. She was detained in Insein prison and tried under the emergency provisions act, used by the military regime to suppress dissent.
Her lawyer, Kyi Win, who said he would be appealing, told the judge that Ms Goldwyn had not committed an offence because the nation's military leaders had made statements favouring democracy similar to the slogans she had chanted.
Ms Goldwyn admitted the facts of her case but denied that her motive was to disrupt stability. "My demonstration was to show the extent of control. It was not to undermine stability. I did not want anybody to take any risk and I did not want anybody to be arrested."
Last night her mother, Charmian, said she was devastated by the verdict. Her daughter was only doing what the suffragettes had done at the beginning of the century. "We really didn't expect it. We expected a suspended sentence... I don't know why they have been so severe on her. She is a lovely girl. She is caring and compassionate. She cares passionately for human rights and democracy and she did this one thing - singing a song."
Ms Goldwyn had gone to Burma without her parents' knowledge, pretending she was off on holiday to Germany and leaving a letter in a bedroom drawer in case she was arrested. She had planned her trip with the backing of her boyfriend, Kyaw Soe Aung, an exile living in Britain after serving seven years in a Burmese jail for demonstrating against the junta. He taught her the words of the freedom song We Will Never Forget, which she was singing when she was arrested.
Stephen Jakobi, of Fair Trials Abroad, expressed his concern but said Ms Goldwyn had been treated very differently from Mr Mawdsley, who was jailed two weeks ago. "They did have a fair stab at a fair trial. She had a lawyer and a public trial, which is in vast contrast to the other lad." Mr Mawdsley's father, David, said: "This is totally out of proportion. This is her first offence. All she did was sing a song. It is so cruel, but they are such a cruel lot, this junta."
The regime took power in 1988 after violently suppressing pro-democracy demonstrations. It held a general election in 1990 but after the democratic opposition's landslide victory refused to let parliament convene. The junta is criticised in the west for widespread human rights violations.
