Burma's military junta offers 'step to democracy'

Burma’s military junta is to reconvene a national convention to draft a new constitution on May 17 – the first major step on its self-proclaimed “road map to democracy.”

The announcement, signed by Lieutenant General Thein Sein of the National Convention Convening Commission, was broadcast tonight.

It said invitations will be sent out to delegates, but gave no details about how many or whether detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party will participate. The convention will be held in the capital Rangoon.

In August last year, following intense international pressure to move toward democracy, prime minister Khin Nyunt revealed Burma’s seven-step road map, but didn’t provide a timetable for its implementation.

It is supposed to lead eventually to a general election and a new government.

Western nations have long shunned the ruling junta for its failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government.

Such critics consider the participation of the NLD in the National Convention crucial for its success.

But so far, the party has not shown any inclination to attend. Spokesmen for the party could not immediately be reached Tuesday for comment.

Suu Kyi’s party won a 1990 general election, but the military – which took power in 1988 after violently suppressing mass pro-democracy demonstrations - refused to step down, instead jailing and harassing members of the pro-democracy movement.

Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel peace laureate and widow of an Oxford don, was arrested after a clash last May between her followers and government supporters, prompting even those Southeast Asian nations sympathetic to the junta to call for speedy democratic reform.

Reports in the state-run press have said that 16 of 17 ethnic rebel groups who have signed ceasefire pacts with the government have agreed to participate in the convention.

Burma, also known as Myanmar, does not currently have a constitution. A 1974 constitution was dropped when the current military rulers assumed power in 1988.