Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Mon, 11 Jan 1993 12:18:15 PST
From:         Coban Tun <tun@QUARK.SFSU.EDU>
Subject:      Burma opens controversial national convention

UPn  01/09 0828  Burma opens controversial national convention
By CHIT TUN

   RANGOON, Burma (UPI) -- A much heralded national convention opened Saturday
to draw up guidelines for a new constitution, with a member of the ruling junta
calling on delegates to ensure the military's  "leadership role" in politics.
   "Maintenance of national stability, peace and tranquillity without the
participation of the military is extremely risky and dangerous," Maj. Gen. Myo
Nyunt said in an address to the convention.
   Nyunt is chairman of the convention's convening commission and a member of
the four-year-old military regime, which calls itself the State Law and Order
Restoration Council (SLORC).
   SLORC called the convention to lay down the principles for a new constitution
intended to allow for "genuine multi-party democracy" but which is expected to
reaffirm the military's grip on power.
   Ethnic and dissident groups have denounced the convention as a SLORC ploy to
hold on to power "while attaining a semblance of legitimacy in the eyes of the
international community."
   A total of 699 of 702 invited delegates attended the opening session of the
convention, held in the conference hall of the President House compound in west
Rangoon.
   The delegates were drawn from among deputies elected in May 1990 multi-party
elections and from the 10 legally existing political parties, as well as from
the main national races, workers, farmers, technocrats, public services and
the intelligentsia.
   The delegates are to conduct their deliberations within the framework of
six objectives laid down by SLORC on Oct. 3.
   The objectives include the "development of a genuine system of multi-party
democracy," but also the continuation of "the leading role of the armed forces
in the national politics of the country in the future."
   Myo Nyunt, in his 45-minute address, defined "genuine multi-party
democracy" as "democracy which suits our Myanmar (Burmese) society."
   The general then spoke at length about the "hardships" and  "sacrifices"
endured by the military to protect Burma.
   "The military is a national force which permanently holds in high esteem
the objectives of national welfare, and which also maintains a tradition of
protecting and defending the lives, property and wealth of the national
peoples..," he said.
   "If there is a desire to take timely action to deter potential dangers to the
nation which may manifest in numerous forms in the future, either from within
or without the country, it would be imperative for such action to be taken with
the armed forces participating in the national political leadership role," he
said.
   SLORC took power in September 1988 and then brutally suppressed pro-
democracy protests that began several months earlier.
   Free elections in May, 1990 were won overwhelmingly by the opposition
National League for Democracy, despite the detention a year earlier of NLD
leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. SLORC has
refused to allow the party to take power.
   Then Defense Minister Gen. Tan Shwe replaced ailing SLORC chairman Gen. Saw
Maung last April, and the regime has since launched a campaign aimed at
improving its international image. The opposition and much of the world
community have dismissed the moves as largely cosmetic.
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