Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Mon, 11 Jan 1993 19:43:42 PST
From:         Coban Tun <tun@QUARK.SFSU.EDU>
Subject:      Burmese junta warns of attempts to disrupt convention

RTw  01/08 0751  BURMA WARNS OF ATTEMPTS TO DISRUPT CONVENTION

    RANGOON, Jan 8, Reuter - Burma's ruling generals have warned of opposition
attempts to disrupt a national convention they have called for Saturday in an
effort to convince the world they are moving towards democracy.
    About 600 delegates are expected to join the Rangoon convention, called to
lay down principles for a constitution to replace the one the generals abolished
on seizing power in 1988, brutally crushing a national uprising for democracy.
    Senior members of the ruling junta, including the powerful head of military
intelligence, Major-General Khin Nyunt, and convention chairman, Major-General
Myo Nyunt, both warned in the state media this week that "external" and
"internal elements" were attempting to disrupt the meeting.
    The junta says a constitution must be approved before it hands over power
to an elected government. But it has already stated that the new constitution
must ensure the military the leading role in national politics.
    Diplomats say the process of approving the constitution and forming a new
government could take several years.
    In rebel territory on the border with Thailand on Friday, members of a rival
government and ethnic minority insurgents rallied to denounce the convention
and called on the United Nations to intervene in their battle against military
control.
    Members of the National League for Democracy (NLD), who fled to establish
the rival government after the junta refused to recognise their landslide 1990
election victory, paraded with flags and a large portrait of their detained
leader Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.
    "The SLORC national convention is a sham," they shouted, referring to the
junta by its official name, the State Law and Order Restoration Council.
    "We do not accept (a) convention without Aung San Suu Kyi. Down with
military dictatorship."
    About 300 ethnic minority members, mostly from the Karen tribe, joined the
rally at Manerplaw, headquarters of the Karen National Union and allied
opposition groups.
    The NLD took 392 of 485 seats in the 1990 election, but instead of allowing
it to govern, the junta arrested or forced into exile its most effective
leaders.
    It is to be represented at the convention by a total of 93 members. Each
of seven political parties has been given five seats as well as one each for a
third of their elected members of parliament.
    The junta has stripped more than 100 NLD members of their seats since the
election.
    All convention delegates are being housed at the Kyaikkasan Grounds, a
former race track in northeast Rangoon, for the duration of the meeting, which
Rangoon sources expect to be at least a month.
    The management committee said this arrangement had been made "not only for
their security but also to enable delegates to hold meetings and discussions
expeditiously in order to make the convention a total success."
    In Manerplaw, 47 representatives of the opposition and rebel groups held a
three-day rival convention which ended on Friday.
    "We are denouncing the SLORC sham convention since it does not represent
all ethnic nationalities in Burma," Bo Mya, leader of the Karen National Union
(KNU), told a joint news conference afterwards.
    "We are calling on the United Nations to intervene into the civil war in
Burma and we will submit our resolution to the United Nations asking them to
resolve the problem," said Brang Seng, chairman of the Kachin Independence
Organisation.
    "We will ask the U.N. to do more than some sanctions, but to intervene as
soon as possible to end Burma civil war," Bo Mya said. "We strongly believe
that only U.N. intervention can resolve the problem."
    The rebels said they held their parallel convention to dispel rumours that
some of their members planned to defect to the SLORC. They said they would not
accept the outcome of the Rangoon convention.
    "The SLORC will never transfer the power to civilian elected members of
parliament, even after the convention. The military will continue clinging on
to power," said Sein Win, prime minister of the rival administration, the
National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma.
    On Friday, the KNU freed 11 Burmese soldiers held since February 1992 to
show their respect for the Geneva Convention, which they voted during their
meeting to support.
    Bo Mya said he expected traditional dry season fighting to resume after
the convention, but added that the KNU was prepared to deal with any offensive.
Brang Sen said there had been heavy Burmese build-ups around areas under his
control in the northeast.
 REUTER SUT JXK JB
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU