Jailed for their beliefs

As the British human rights campaigner James Mawdsley is freed from jail in Burma, BBC News Online looks at what motivates prisoners of conscience.

James Mawdsley has returned to the UK after spending more than a year in solitary confinement in a Burmese prison.

James Mawdsley: Reportedly beaten by prison guards

His crime? Carrying pro-democracy leaflets, after twice before being deported.

Burma is just one of the 61 countries holding - or believed to be holding - prisoners of conscience, according to Amnesty International's 1999 annual report.

Closer to home, a handful of people in the UK - modern-day conscientious objectors - have done time for refusing to pay tax that will fund the military.

Yet going to prison is an extreme way to make a point. What motivates people to take such a stand?

Carlos Reyes: Behind bars for two years

Carlos Reyes is a trustee of Chile Democratico, a group of exiles based in London.

In the 1970s, he was detained for campaigning against the military coup that swept General Augusto Pinochet to power.

"I was abducted from my home by the secret police and taken to a police centre, where I was tortured for six months, and then put in a concentration camp."

A journalist and a socialist, he became a target while investigating the fate of other pro-democracy supporters who had disappeared.

Although well aware of the danger, he refused to go into hiding.

The legacy of Pinochet's 1973-1990 rule

For the first six months after his capture, Mr Reyes was himself one of the disappeared: "Nobody knew whether I was alive or dead."

He was then moved to an army-run prison, where he passed messages to his wife when she came to visit. She, in turn, gave the information to human rights groups.

"When you were detained, the government denied that you were there," Mr Reyes says.

"So we passed information about the prisoners to the Red Cross, the United Nations and Amnesty International, who would put pressure on the government. In this way, we saved a lot of lives."

Taking a stand

Dr Alex Comfort, Joy of Sex author: Jailed in 1961 for anti-nuclear protest

Muhammad Ali: Appealed against five-year jail term for refusing Vietnam draft

Taiwanese VP Annette Lu: Jailed in 1980s for pro-independence action

Daniel and Philip Berrigan: US priests jailed for burning draft cards

Commanders from the special forces would visit the cells to carry out beatings and spot-searches, Mr Reyes says.

"But it was important to make the public aware of what was happening in Chile, otherwise people tend to believe the government's propaganda.

"It was very important to be in there, to feel the pain and understand the brutality."

Pacifist in wartime

During World War II, some 60,000 Britons, including some women, refused to be conscripted because they believed war was wrong.

In the clink: Barbara Roads' protest against war

Many were given conscientious objector status by tribunals; others agreed to carry out non-combat duties. But 3,000 were jailed.

Barbara Roads, a Quaker, spent a month in Holloway Prison for refusing to register for fire-watching duties. She was pregnant at the time.

"I always saw defence work as being as important to the country as the offensive side, so I wouldn't have anything to do with any of it," Mrs Roads says.

"I wrote to the fire chief and explained my reasons. He said he understood my point of view, but it was illegal."

She was summonsed to appear in court and fined £5, which she refused to pay.

"Going to prison was the way that was open to me to make a protest against the war.

"If I had been called up to join the army and go into the trenches, I would have refused to do that - but you can only refuse to do what you are asked to do."