Myanmar set for new constitution talks, without opposition
Bangkok (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Myanmar's junta on Thursday resumes constitutional talks they say are a step toward democracy, but the man who launched the process is now behind bars and pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi is still under house arrest.
Her National League for Democracy refused to join the National Convention when it convened in May, demanding her release and citing the many restrictions placed on the talks, which included a ban on discussing the proceedings.
Without the NLD, which won a landslide election victory in 1990 but was never allowed to take power, western governments and the United Nations have derided the convention as a sham.
Exile groups have started their own constitution-drafting process outside the country, though they have little power to promote their document in Myanmar. Yesterday an opposition Committee published a statement saying the junta's constitution "could not be expected to guarantee democracy, human rights and public well-being".
General Khin Nyunt, the only top member of the junta who supported any dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi, was sacked from his post as prime minister in October last year. The military intelligence he headed for two decades was disbanded, and 300 people linked to it are standing trial in secret inside the country's notorious Insein prison.
The convention is expected to gather some 1,000 hand-picked delegates at an isolated camp set up for the event outside Yangon. The invitees include 633 delegates from various ethnicities and regions, 105 from armed ethnic groups that have signed ceasefires, 109 civil servants, and 93 farmers, the convention's secretary, Brigadier-General Kyaw Hsan said to the Myanmar Times weekly. Other delegates include 48 workers representatives, 56 academics, 29 members of political parties, and 13 people who won seats in the 1990 elections, he said.
The military, which has ruled the country since 1962, has promised to bring democracy to the nation of 52 million, but just last week arrested several pro-democracy leaders and prohibited groups from commemorating a key pre-independence event. "We are dealing with a regime that does not want to move with the times," said Asda Jayanama, Thailand's former ambassador to the United Nations and adviser to the rights group Forum Asia.
"You have to let [the convention] go to show the world that it is a fake process," he told reporters in Bangkok.
A Western diplomat said the convention could run up to the traditional New Year in mid-April, take a month-long recess, and finish up by mid-year.
Despite the criticism, the military is pressing ahead with its convention, at a site state media describe as "green and pleasant," but surrounded by military bases. The junta has ordered all the delegates to arrive two days early at the convention centre north of Yangon, complete with beauty parlour, gym and medical facilities.
The venue, located on a desolate site, has been chosen to deter unwelcome outside scrutiny.
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17/03/2021 13:08
